Nothing went right for the Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, with the confusing pit stop, the overtake under the yellow flag and, of course, the unsafe release. Because of the unsafe release at Zandvoort, the Spaniard earned a penalty before the Singapore Grand Prix, making it his third penalty this season. This penalty has brought the Spanish driver one step closer to the race ban.
The Ferrari driver was penalized for five seconds due to the unsafe release in front of the Alpine driver, Fernando Alonso. However, Carlos thinks that it is clearly frustrating as he was trying to save someone’s life, not create a dangerous situation.
During the Dutch GP Sainz was forced to hit the brakes in front of Alonso to save the life of the McLaren crew member who ran into his exit-line. As a result, even though he came up fifth in the race, he was relegated to the eighth position. However, to him, it was not an unsafe release and he said he would discuss this matter with the FIA.
The Spaniard has also brought forth the issue of narrow pit lanes, which must be taken into serious consideration. The safety of the mechanics should be a priority as they are the ones who have to stop in the middle of cars going 80 kph, wearing a suit and helmet, only centimeters apart from all the life-threatening situations.
For Carlos, Zandvoort is a great track, and so are the Budapest and Singapore tracks. However, Sainz is concerned about the safety of the event as anything can happen on the lanes. The pits are especially dangerous when there are multiple cars making a stop at the lanes at the same time.
Surprisingly, the McLaren team principal, Andreas Seidl, projects a different view on this matter as he thinks the tight pit lanes are also “a part of the challenge”. Although the narrow tracks add some uncertainty to the challenge, he believes that all teams have already handled this well and that nothing serious has occurred. So, this is not just an issue with this track only.
