Carlos Sainz misses the Qatar GP race (at 7:00 p.m.). The Madrid driver will not be able to start the 17th round of 2023 due to a “problem in the fuel system” of his SF-23, according to Ferrari.
“We tried to find a solution, but it was too late. It is what it is,” commented Fred Vasseur, the head of Ferrari, into Dazn’s microphone. “It could be because of the pianos,” the Frenchman hinted.
The Spanish driver had to start on the grid from 12th position, after a bad qualifying session on Friday.
In this way, the Madrid native loses options to snatch fourth place in the drivers’ World Championship from his friend Fernando Alonso, from whom he is separated by 22 points.
This is the first race that Carlos Sainz misses this year. Something similar already happened to him in Belgium 2020, when he was racing with McLaren. At the end of the reconnaissance lap, the man from Madrid was called to the pits as the MCL35 was letting out suspicious smoke that was a sign of an engine problem due to a broken exhaust. So at Spa he couldn’t start.
