P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has confirmed he will hold discussions with the Las Vegas Grand Prix over compensation for
“The opening practice hour at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit was halted after eight minutes when Sainz ran over a loose water valve cover and suffered extensive damage to his car. Ferrari was forced to change the chassis, power unit and battery on his SF-23.
When asked post-race if Ferrari would seek a settlement for the episode, Vasseur said: “This will be a private discussion that I will have with the stakeholders of this [event].”
A similar situation occurred in Malaysia in 2017 when Haas successfully struck a financial agreement after Romain Grosjean was pitched into a spin by a drain cover.
Vasseur established that Ferrari “can’t repair the chassis”, with the team back at its Maranello base already in the process of assembling a new one for the Abu Dhabi GP.”
The Frenchman also revealed that the whole process will have a profound impact on Ferrari’s budget cap spending this year.
“So far it is included in the cap, there is no provision into the cost cap excluding the crashes,” Vasseur disclosed. “For sure you have a lot of extra costs. The loom was damaged, the gearbox was damaged, the battery was damaged, the engine is dead.”
“For sure we have a lot of consequences on the financial side, on the sporting side and on the stock of spare parts and on the budget side for sure, it’s not an easy one.”
Asked how easy it will be to adjust the budget cap, Vasseur answered: “You can see the pros and the cons of this is that we won’t be able to rebuild everything at all because the next one [race] is next week. No way to build up a new monocoque for example.”
“But it’s true also that if we have to adjust the budget cap, our whole cost, at least between now and the end of the season, we don’t have so much room to play with, or we miss Abu Dhabi.”
