Carlos Sainz braking 'too early' after his engine caught fire at 2022 Austrian GP triggered a delay in his rescue, say F1 marshals

Carlos Sainz going off the brakes too early after his engine caught fire has been pointed out as one of the reasons behind the delayed response to the Spaniard's DNF in Austria.

Sainz's engine gave out on the straight after Turn 3. When the Ferrari driver tried to park the car and get out of it, there was a delay in his car being tended to which raised question marks over the F1 marshals' preparedness in such events.

As it turns out, the marshals for the 2022 F1 Austrian GP have released a statement in which they tried to explain the complete chain of events after Carlos Sainz tried to park his Ferrari. In their view, the driver went off the brakes too early, which complicated the whole process even more. The statement read:

“Several unfortunate circumstances came together. The place where Sainz parked the Ferrari was not visible from the marshals’ stand. They received instructions over the radio to go to the car with fire extinguishers, and when they saw the situation, they made the decision to call in the fire engine (S-car).”

“This decision had to be made within seconds and, in retrospect, was absolutely correct. If you remember [Romain] Grosjean’s accident [at the 2020 Bahrain GP], in a situation like that, hand-held fire extinguishers are absolutely not enough.”

“Therefore, the fire extinguisher was turned off and the car was [left], which led to that unfortunate image on TV of the marshal “running away”. Another problem was that Sainz, understandably, became nervous in the vehicle and went off the brakes too early. The wedge had to be pushed under the rolling vehicle, which of course made the whole thing extremely difficult.”

“However, due to the resistance of the wedge, the vehicle steered in and stopped at the guard rail. Afterwards, the fire could be extinguished with a few pushes of the extinguisher.”

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Even if Carlos Sainz had not come out of the vehicle he would have been safe: F1 marshals

In an endeavor to highlight their preparedness, the F1 marshals highlighted that a fire engine was on the scene in less than 30 seconds. The team had a second fire engine on standby and the third was on its way. Even if Carlos Sainz had not managed to get out of the car for some reason, the marshals assured that they would have still been able to get him out of the car.

The aforementioned statement further read:

“We had a fire engine on the scene in less than 30 seconds, which would have brought a fast-spreading fire under control. Since Grosjean’s accident, it is very important for us to have a lot of “extinguishing power” on the spot immediately in order to protect the driver in the best possible way.”

“Another emergency vehicle was already standing by and a third was on its way. Even if Sainz had not come out of the vehicle on his own, we would have been able to protect him in the best possible way.”

It's hard to deny that there was a dicey moment when Carlos Sainz's Ferrari was on fire and rolling backward. It is, however, heartening to see the level of preparedness in place, as the marshals appear to have taken the learnings from Romain Grosjean's inferno in the 2020 F1 Sakhir GP well.