Carlos Sainz’s FP2 crash during the Abu Dhabi race weekend is raising a lot of eyebrows. If you have not watched the Free Practice sessions yet, Carlos Sainz lost his car in the middle of the esses, and was a riding spectator to the barriers. While there have been many speculations about the car bottoming out, thanks to the bumps in the circuit, Sainz thought that there was an additional factor that forced the crash.

Talking immediately on the radio, after the crash, he talked about dirty air impacting his car, from a car that was not pushing ahead of him. Naturally, if you’ve followed the race before the 2022 season, you’ll understand what the problem is as well. Peter Windsor, former Ferrari boss, was quick to put out a video discussing this exact same problem. Not sure what the problem is? Read along.

Ex-Ferrari Boss Calls Out the Irony of New Regulations

One of the many reasons why cars weren’t able to follow each other closely for an extended period of time before 2022 was because of dirty air. The aerodynamics of the cars are designed in such a way that the dirty air from the cars ahead will cause many problems to the cars following. Be it overheating of car parts or even tire wear, dirty air causes a lot of problems. However, to tackle this exact situation, and promote better racing, the FIA made significant regulation changes for the 2022 season onwards.

Peter Windsor, now hosting his own YouTube channel, analyzed the crash in his video. Commenting on the accident, he states, “He lost the backend going in and went off. He said immediately that it was dirty air from a much slower car that was about 100 meters ahead of him, which in itself is an irony, is it not?” 

He then went on to explain why this crash was ironic. “This is year 2 now, of the new generation F1 cars, which are being designed purely to make sure that there isn’t too much dirty air coming from the back of a car, to make overtaking a lot more straightforward. Here is a very slow car, putting out enough dirty air for Carlos Sainz to lose it in the middle of those fast esses.”\

Also read: Sebastian Vettel Stands Tall With Carlos Sainz as Horrific Crash Brings Back Haunting Memories

However, fans were also quick to notice that there was more to it than dirty air that caused the crash. One Alpine engineer who was speaking in the post-Free Practice show said the crash was due to Ferrari’s setup.

Ferrari Running The Car Too Low

Peter Windsor, in his video, also refers to this other theory that’s floating around. Abu Dhabi is a circuit that requires the car to be run at an extremely high downforce. The ground effect in this circuit is extremely crucial to ensure that they get the fastest times at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Get it too low, however, and even minor elevation changes can cause you to lose the car. Many pundits reckon that this is exactly what happened to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

There are a couple of bumps just after turn 1 that the Spaniard might have hit, causing the car to go off. Windsor, on his show, said, “It was interesting to hear an Alpine engineer say, ‘Yeah, but it looked like there were some sparks. He probably bottomed out. Ferrari may be running a bit too low there to get the downforce that they’ve got.'”

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While it is not clear if Sainz needed to change any parts in the car, as time flies by, it becomes highly unlikely that he will get another penalty. If he doesn’t, then he and Leclerc are on a serious mission to get P2 in the constructors’ championship.