Verstappen done with loose covers: 'Better control needed'

And there it happened again! For the third time in a relatively short time, a loose manhole cover caused problems in Formula 1. On Friday, Sergio Perez did not sustain any damage to his Red Bull; a day earlier, Charles Leclerc did find a small hole on his Ferrari. However, the massive devastation caused by the cover to Carlos Sainz in Las Vegas was (thankfully) not repeated.

Three incidents, that's three too many. Still, with the current generation of F1 cars, such an incident cannot be avoided, Adrian Newey revealed. Max Verstappen could only agree: "With the ground effect cars, probably it's a little bit worse. But also, it seems like we're driving, you know, in places that not a lot of other cars are going. But, yes, for sure, maybe these kind of things can be checked a bit more. You know, we know that this is a potential problem with these cars."

"And when you go to certain tracks, you know where the drain covers are. So, I guess, before you start driving in the weekend, to double check that everything is solid, I think, is a must for the upcoming tracks. That we don't have another situation where cars get destroyed. And, you know, especially with budget cap in place as well, it's not nice when these things happen," Verstappen said.

Leclerc expects FIA to look at the problem

Charles Leclerc can only agree with Verstappen's words. "It's a serious issue because it can have big consequences," the Ferrari driver says. "And we have to look into it for the future for it to not happen again because. But I'm sure everybody is on it and working on finding the best solution for that."