Why Sainz created a dangerous situation in Brazilian GP

Sao Paulo Grand Prix stewards have detailed why Carlos Sainz was found guilty of dangerous driving after crashing out of the race.

On lap 39 in the tricky conditions, Sainz spun off at Turn 8 and backed the Ferrari into the barrier, and began the usual procedure to abandon the car.

As such, the marshals began the usual recovery steps, but the stewards found that Sainz was told by Ferrari that the car could continue, with the Spanish racer then proceeding to try to drive away – without informing the marshals. 

The stewards felt that this had created a potentially “dangerous situation”, thus penalising Sainz with a reprimand. 

The full stewards verdict into Sainz is available below. 

“The driver crashed on his own. The marshals were quickly on the scene to recover the car,” read the report. 

“The driver removed the steering wheel indicating to the marshals that he was abandoning the car. The team then informed the driver that they thought the car was safe to continue. The driver replaced the steering wheel while the marshals had started to feed the recovery loop through the roll hoop of the car.

The driver admitted that he was not aware that the marshals had commenced the recovery procedure. 

“The marshals recognizing that the driver was going to attempt to restart aborted the recovery attempt just as the driver drove the car away. The driver admitted that he did not know that the marshals had started the recovery procedure and accepted that removing the steering wheel was a clear indication of his intention to abandon the car.

“A potentially dangerous situation was created that was avoidable by the driver solely.”