Second successive Belgian DNS "difficult for Carlos Sainz to take" - McLaren boss Andreas Seidl

McLaren

Second successive Belgian DNS "difficult for Carlos to take" - Seidl

A PU issue accounted for the Spaniard's latest failure

Sam Hall

Sunday 30 August 2020 21:00 Updated: 21:27

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McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has revealed that Carlos Sainz's failure to start the Belgian Grand Prix for the second straight year had proven difficult for him to take.

Just as last year, a problem with the Renault power unit prevented Sainz from competing at Spa-Francorchamps.

The problem manifested itself on the Spaniard's second installation lap to the grid, when a trail of smoke could be seen exiting the rear of his MCL35.

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Even before the anthems and pre-race procedures, Sainz was out of his race suit and accepting of his fate.

“Obviously it is difficult for Carlos to take something like today," said the McLaren boss.

"It’s the second year in a row now where he cannot even start the race in Spa. Obviously a big disappointment for him.

“It’s no different for us, for the team, but in the end, that’s unfortunately part of racing as well to a certain degree.

"It’s important to keep to the facts, analyse whenever something is going wrong, what happened, try to learn from it and try to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

“The good thing is there is always next week and we go racing again, and hopefully we can make up for it.”

Seidl had recently heralded Renault as prior to this race McLaren had suffered no problems and had a 100 per cent finishing record. Now he is left hoping the damage to the power unit is not too severe.

“Obviously, we need to wait now for the analysis from Renault’s side on the specific issue," added Seidl.

"In the end, we saw that it was an internal issue on the power unit side which then, as a consequence, damaged the rear of the car, including the exhaust.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing for Carlos, for us not to be able to start the race, but it is what it is. We simply need to wait now for the analysis. Also in terms of the consequences.

“We need to see if there is any chance to recover this power unit or if it’s a terminal failure.”

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