F1 Las Vegas GP issues statement after the 1st day debacle

The 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP encountered an issue soon after it kicked off on Thursday night. Nine minutes into the first practice session, Carlos Sainz's car was severely damaged by a dislodged drain pipe cover that came off the track. The incident damaged the Ferrari's monocoque, engine, and battery and cost the team a fortune to fix.

As a result, the first practice session was immediately cancelled, and the second one was delayed by two and a half hours.

After both the race sessions ended and the long Thursday night came to an end, both CEOs of F1 and Las Vegas GP issued a statement regarding the incident and how several safety measures were taken to ensure that the following race sessions were conducted smoothly.

“Last night, approximately nine minutes into the first Free Practice session, a water valve cover broke on the straight on Las Vegas Boulevard. At that time the FIA, which is responsible for the safe running of the activities on the circuit, stopped the session so that we could look at the broken water valve cover and inspect the track. This has happened on occasion at other tracks at other races around the world,” the statement read.

Since there were many drain pipe covers around the F1 circuit, every single one of them was removed and filled with a mixture of sand and asphalt. This was the main reason for FP1's cancellation and the delayed start of FP2.

“The precautionary step of removing all of the water valve covers on the entire track and filling them with sand and asphalt was undertaken. The entire process, from determination of the issue to remediation, took approximately five hours. The decision to remediate in this way was taken out of an abundance of caution and because the safety of drivers, trackside marshals and officials and our fans is always our highest priority. We thank the contractors who worked expeditiously to resolve the situation so quickly,” the statement continued.

“As a result, the first Free Practice ended early. We moved ahead with the second Free Practice session at approximately 2:30 AM PT for 90 minutes,” it further added.

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Ferrari team boss enraged after Carlos Sainz's drain pipe cover incident in the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP practice

Carlos Sainz was quite unfortunate in the FP1 of the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP. A dislodged drain pipe cover hit his car and caused massive amounts of damage.

After the race, Ferrari's team principal Frederic Vasseur expressed his anger towards the management of the race and how a simple drain cover will now cost the team a fortune.

"We damaged completely the monocoque, the engine, the battery. I think it’s just unacceptable. It cost us a fortune. We f*cked up the session for Carlos. We won’t be part of FP2 for sure. I think it’s just unacceptable for F1 today," Vasseur said.

Thankfully, Sainz was able to take part in the second practice session later that day and even secured second place, right behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.