Sainz unhurt after “properly scary” F1 Tuscan GP pile-up

Carlos Sainz confirmed he was unhurt following what he described as a “properly scary” crash which red-flagged Formula 1’s Tuscan Grand Prix.

Sainz was caught up in an incident which also took out Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi as the field bunched up to restart the race following an early Safety Car period.

Giovinazzi slammed into the rear of Magnussen’s Haas and was sent airborne into the side of Latifi’s Williams, while the unsighted Sainz was also collected in the melee which forced the race to be suspended.

Sainz was seen holding his hand after walking away from the scene of the crash and said he was fine depite the scary-looking incident.

“It was properly scary,” Sainz said. “We’re doing 290, 300 kph at that point, because everyone in front of me just thought that we were racing.

“Suddenly it looks like we were not racing anymore and everyone started braking again.

“By the time I saw everything it was just too late and it was a big crash. The main thing is we are all OK now.”

Sainz said the crash reminded him of the Safety Car restart at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix and stressed the accident needed reviewing. 

“It was similar to Brazil last year,” he explained.

“It felt like at the back of the grid where I was everyone in front of me thought that the race was going and we were all flat out until someone realised the race was not on.

“Something definitely to look into because the speeds we are going at the main straights are very, very big so the crash I had could have been much worse if one car would have sideways on the main straight and I could have took him.

“It’s something to learn from here because it’s definitely not a nice feeling to do 280 kph and suddenly find three cars in the middle of the straight just stopped.”

SAINZ: “By the time I saw everything it was too late - it was a big crash. The main thing is that we are all ok"#TuscanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/7MsXZh74Uo

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 13, 2020