At the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, Perez ran over a Ferrari submachine gun that had gotten in his way while Sainz suffered a slow serve and later in the same event the Ferrari driver was forced to brake as he left his pitbox to avoid hitting a McLaren mechanic in front of him. .
This led to Sainz receiving a dangerous release penalty and he later called for the F1 pit layout to be reviewed to avoid such incidents in the future.
As the championship returned to a track with a narrow pit lane at the Singapore GP this weekend, Sainz and Perez suggested their teams had not implemented any changes to pit stop procedure following Zandvoort problems.
But when asked about recent problems at Autosport, they renewed calls for an overhaul of the size of the pit lane and Sainz offered ideas to key F1 stakeholders.
“For me, it’s not the pit crews or the F1 teams that really need to make changes,” he said.
“It’s the organization of the FIA and F1 – they have to find a solution to these types of pitlanes.
“One day, there will be an accident. One day there will be a human [that is] hurt because everything is tight when there is a safety car and we are all in the pits at the same time, like in Budapest a year ago when we pitted on the formation lap.
“[Or] in Zandvoort when the safety car came out [and] it was chaos. We have to find a solution because I feel like we are putting someone’s health at risk.
“The circuits are homologated and if to be homologated we need a wider and longer pit lane to have space between the cars, we have to make sure that happens.
“But I know that logistically and technically it’s not easy for the circuits, but I was in a pretty scary situation at Zandvoort and it could happen anytime soon.
“It’s something we have to raise between the FIA and F1. Obviously the teams can help find solutions, but let’s see.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, in the pits
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Perez said F1 drivers and their teams are “put into this situation by the circuits, basically”.
“So it’s something that needs to be reviewed and hopefully we can improve it,” he added.
“Because there’s so much space we can have and it’s not enough.
“If something goes wrong during another team’s pit stop, there’s just no room for it to be avoidable.”
At the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, Perez ran over a Ferrari submachine gun that had gotten in his way while Sainz suffered a slow serve and later in the same event the Ferrari driver was forced to brake as he left his pitbox to avoid hitting a McLaren mechanic in front of him. .
This led to Sainz receiving a dangerous release penalty and he later called for the F1 pit layout to be reviewed to avoid such incidents in the future.
As the championship returned to a track with a narrow pit lane at the Singapore GP this weekend, Sainz and Perez suggested their teams had not implemented any changes to pit stop procedure following Zandvoort problems.
But when asked about recent problems at Autosport, they renewed calls for an overhaul of the size of the pit lane and Sainz offered ideas to key F1 stakeholders.
“For me, it’s not the pit crews or the F1 teams that really need to make changes,” he said.
“It’s the organization of the FIA and F1 – they have to find a solution to these types of pitlanes.
“One day, there will be an accident. One day there will be a human [that is] hurt because everything is tight when there is a safety car and we are all in the pits at the same time, like in Budapest a year ago when we pitted on the formation lap.
“[Or] in Zandvoort when the safety car came out [and] it was chaos. We have to find a solution because I feel like we are putting someone’s health at risk.
“The circuits are homologated and if to be homologated we need a wider and longer pit lane to have space between the cars, we have to make sure that happens.
“But I know that logistically and technically it’s not easy for the circuits, but I was in a pretty scary situation at Zandvoort and it could happen anytime soon.
“It’s something we have to raise between the FIA and F1. Obviously the teams can help find solutions, but let’s see.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, in the pits
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Perez said F1 drivers and their teams are “put into this situation by the circuits, basically”.
“So it’s something that needs to be reviewed and hopefully we can improve it,” he added.
“Because there’s so much space we can have and it’s not enough.
“If something goes wrong during another team’s pit stop, there’s just no room for it to be avoidable.”