Spanish chassis changes for Sainz and Norris

Michelle Foster 21 May 2022 10:30 AM

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz doing a pit stop during practice. Spain May 2022

Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris have both had a chassis change ahead of Saturday’s running at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Ferrari broke curfew on Friday night to work on Sainz’s car, changing the Spaniard’s chassis with a fuel system issue said to have caused the problem.

It was the first of Ferrari’s two allowances each team has when it comes to the overnight curfew.

Sainz, who was fourth quickest in Friday’s practice, will be hoping that is the last of the drama for his home race weekend, a race Sainz believes he can win.

“It would be great to finish on the podium but I want my first win,” he said in the build-up to the race. “We are ready for it.”

McLaren also broke curfew, the Woking team needing to change Norris’ chassis after it suffered damage in FP2.

Norris is pushing hard but still finding his feet in FP2, dipping a toe or two in the gravel #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/HIFe1rVLxS

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022

The Briton covered only six laps in the late afternoon session with it initially reported he had only broken the new floor on his MCL36.

However, this morning it has emerged McLaren also found an issue with the chassis, necessitating a change.

“I just ran wide over the exit kerb of Turn 9 and damaged the car,” Norris said of his FP2 off.

“I guess we are quite limited on new parts so we wanted to make sure we saved them and didn’t do any further damage. It was just a misjudgement from my side, as simple as that.”

The team were able to repair the floor and that, together with McLaren’s other nine upgrades for the Spanish GP, will be bolted onto his new chassis for Saturday’s practice.