FIA to look into Carlos Sainz crash seatbelt stretch

Ferrari

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FIA to look into Sainz crash seatbelt stretch

Sainz seemed to lunge forward in the cockpit at Monza

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Thursday 16 September 2021 08:00

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Race director Michael Masi has revealed the FIA is to look into how Carlos Sainz was thrown so far forward in his cockpit during his practice smash across the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Sainz crashed heavily at Ascari during FP2, with his head visibly rattled within the Ferrari much more than has been seen during the modern era of F1 with the current seatbelts and HANS device safety features.

Asked if the amount of give in the seatbelts would be looked at after the crash, Masi said: "I think the belts are made to stretch.

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"It is one of those things where you have got a human body in there and you have got to have some give, you can't just keep everyone completely tied in because there has to be some give in things.

"So yes, we will look at the belt stretch as we do with any major incident or significant incident like that and see what we can learn from it, can it be improved? Let's have a look."

Sainz has 'no explanation' for crash

Sainz's crash gave his engineers and mechanics their second race against time on a Saturday afternoon in two weekends after he crashed out of FP3 in Zandvoort.

Speaking after the Italian Grand Prix, Sainz explained he was still confused by the incident.

"It is an accident I should have avoided, it was an accident I still don't understand and don't have an explanation for," he added.

"The car was very neutral in Ascari across the whole weekend and I struggled a lot with the balance there. Simply, I guess I am still going through a bit of a learning process of understanding the car.

"The car also seems to be quite neutral in the mid-corner and I need to be careful when I go on the throttle.

"It is not ideal because I have cost the mechanics and the team a few too many repairs lately but I am sure it will not happen again anytime soon and I will recover from it.

"Something to learn from and something I need to keep investigating and try to learn from because it is not ideal."