Ferrari’s day atop the Austrian Grand Prix podium was nearly swept out from under them after a series of reliability issues arose during the race’s final quarter.
Most spectacularly, Carlos Sainz’s bid to take second place behind Charles Leclerc was undone on lap 57, when his engine violently expired.
Sainz was running firmly in the slipstream of Max Verstappen, looking to pass the Dutchman for second place at any moment when disaster struck. Throughout the day Ferrari displayed a clear advantage in race pace over the Red Bull squad, who saw Sergio Perez pick up terminal damage after a lap 1 collision with George Russell.
Sainz’s engine violently expired on the downhill run to turn 4, sending the Spaniard straight on to the escape road as flames and debris began to fly from underneath the Ferrari’s engine cover.
“No, no! No!” Sainz exclaimed repeatedly over the radio as he attempted to slow down the stricken Ferrari.
Sainz brought the car to a stop near the peak of turn 4’s uphill escape road as the engine came to an even brighter blaze, with wind blowing the flames toward the safety cell, inches from Sainz’s right side.
Working to escape to safety, Sainz’s exit from the car was made more cumbersome than usual as the car began to roll back downhill, flames still spewing from the rear end. Sainz signaled frantically for marshals to get to the car quickly, though by the time they were able to stabilize the car the driver was out of the cockpit and safely behind the barriers.
Carlos is out the car and ok #AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KpGrTnzsi2
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 10, 2022
Once the virtual safety car triggered by Sainz’s expiration was lifted, his teammate Leclerc continued on in the lead, nearly four seconds ahead of Verstappen. Leclerc initially reported his throttle abnormally responding to input on lap 57.
Ferrari quickly informed Leclerc that their telemetry showed no clear problems with the car at that time. Nonetheless, Leclerc continued to report strange feedback from the car’s power input.
Ferrari later diagnosed the issue as the throttle sporadically getting stuck and advised Leclerc to lift off earlier on corner entry, allowing the engine to rev down under less stress.
With only four laps to go, the Monegasque driver reported that he was also having trouble with the gearbox, particularly in the heavy braking zone leading up to turn 3.
“The downshifts are … refused,” Leclerc told his team on lap 69.
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