Formula 1 | Sainz questions FIA over refusal to place TecPro in Miami

Carlos Sainz thinks he has recovered from his accident in Miami, when he hit the concrete wall at turn 14 in EL2. The Ferrari driver, however, waits to have taken the wheel of an F1 to be sure, and in parallel, he makes a request to the FIA.

The Spaniard doesn’t understand why he wasn’t listened to when, on Friday night at the Miami F1 Grand Prix, he raised the need to place a TecPro barrier where he had his accident.

“This week I trained at home” Sainz said. « I’ve been trying to recover from the slight knot I’ve had in my neck since the accident in Miami to come here fully prepared. The knot shouldn’t be there anymore. »

But you never know, until you force 5G on it, like I plan to do tomorrow. I feel recovered, but you never know until I jump into a Formula 1 car. I expect it to be fine. I trained and everything went well. »

« I think it was pretty clear. I was very clear about it on Friday night. I said I had an accident, I was at a very low speed and it hurt « I said it shouldn’t have hurt, compared to the other crashes I’ve had in my career, and something had to be done about this corner. »

While Fernando Alonso recently pointed out the « concern » of the drivers with the race direction, Sainz says more indirectly. He implicitly accuses the race direction, led by Niels Wittich, of having cost Esteban Ocon a big accident, and a chassis for Alpine F1.

« The response was ‘it was a very freak accident. It shouldn’t happen again.’ didn’t happen. »

« So we need an explanation to know exactly what is the reason for not putting TecPro to protect Esteban. We ended the weekend with two riders with sore necks and almost two broken frames for a very slow accident. So there is really something to review. »

Are the 2022 F1s too steep for the drivers?

Sainz repeatedly noticed that the curbs caused pilots pain. He wonders about the difficulties for the back and the blow of him and his colleagues, while the 2022 single-seaters have 18-inch tires, and suspensions designed accordingly.

« Already the curbs in Miami seemed aggressive with these cars. There were a few bumps at Imola which were quite hard on the body. I think we have to, as drivers and in Formula 1, understand the price that a driver will pay on his back and his health after a career in F1, with this type of car. »

« The rules are great, but I think we need to open the debate to see if they are doing exactly what we need for the show. But do we need to run so stiff for our necks and backs, with this mass of car?

« For me, it’s more of a philosophical question that I ask Formula 1, and maybe everyone, to rethink how much the driver has to pay the price of his career on his health, in order to combat this. »

« If we took into account the pilot? »

And Sainz to worry about the long-term effect on the health of F1 drivers, between stiff cars and a porpoising effect that is struggling for the moment to be really contained. He concludes his thoughts with a tackle to the FIA ​​and F1, which rarely listen to the main players in their sport.

« I feel it already. I don’t need an expert opinion to know that if I spend 10 years like this, it’s going to be hard, I’m going to have to work a lot in mobility and flexibility, and I I’m going to have to invest in the health of the body in general. »

« As drivers it’s definitely an issue we don’t like to talk about a lot, because we don’t like to look weak. I’m strong, I’m very fit, I consider myself the one of the fittest drivers, and I’ve never struggled in a Formula 1 race. »

« But it’s more long-term and for everyone’s benefit we should see what options we have. Then there’s the interests of the teams for overtaking, for everything, for the show, that has to be taken into account. factor into the equation. But if, for the first time, we also take into account the driver? I think it could be interesting. »