Fears grow ‘that’s it’ for Las Vegas GP Friday over track safety issues

Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle says that from his experience, the on-track action is over on the opening day of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Drivers ventured out for their exploratory laps of this new territory, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, as Formula 1’s hotly-anticipated Las Vegas GP weekend got underway.

But, with less than 10 minutes gone, the red flags were out as Carlos Sainz brought his Ferrari to a stop down the Strip straight.

Martin Brundle fears loose drain has wrecked Friday running

While initially unclear what had caused Sainz to stop, onboard footage showed the Ferrari taking a huge jolt as the engine was sent into shutdown mode, as it soon came to light that a drain had lifted up as Sainz passed over it.

The FIA later confirmed that it was the concrete frame which had come up, wrecking Sainz’s Ferrari underfloor and also the chassis on Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, as the governing body confirmed that all drains would now need to be checked.

And with FP2 still scheduled to follow, Brundle cannot see that going ahead.

“That’s it for today,” Brundle declared.

“Fixing that, checking everything else that’s out there and fixing that and letting it dry and making sure it won’t come out again, is a big job.

“That’s a very, very big issue if there are other areas like that around the track.”

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However, former IndyCar and NASCAR racer Danica Patrick attempted to make the picture a little less gloomy, assuring that if any city was up to the task of a quick and safe repair job on the track, it would be Las Vegas.

“I mean, they’ve repaved the entire circuit, I’ve raced plenty of street courses and they did not repave the circuit, so they’ve gone as far as they possibly can to meet the requirements and be ready for these cars,” she said.

“So it’s not a good look, but there’s a lot of construction workers here in Las Vegas and if there’s one city where they’re going to be able to pull resources to get to work and work all night, because the city never sleeps, it’s going to be Vegas.”

Despite the dramas, Ferrari can at least say that they topped the first-ever session in Las Vegas, courtesy of Charles Leclerc, though doing so will be of very little comfort as the FIA now sets about making the track safe for action.

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