MAY 7, 2022

Sainz has no idea about Ferrari cheat claims

The FIA has dismissed suggestions Ferrari broke the rules during last week's Pirelli tyre test at Imola.

Carlos Sainz, Miami GP 2022
© Ferrari

The FIA has dismissed suggestions Ferrari broke the rules during last week's Pirelli tyre test at Imola.

Two teams - one of which is believed to be McLaren - reportedly complained that Charles Leclerc ran a different specification floor than his teammate Carlos Sainz.

Tyre testing may not be used by teams for the testing of car developments. The other two teams running at Imola last week were Alfa Romeo and Red Bull's second team Alpha Tauri.

Maranello based Ferrari did not comment, while Spaniard Sainz said in Miami: "I'm not aware of any of that at the moment.

"For the specifics of the floor, whatever we ran in the Imola test, you can ask Pirelli or Ferrari what we did. I have nothing to say right now. I have no idea," he insisted.

It has emerged, however, that the FIA looked into the matter and concluded that Ferrari only ran two different specifications of floor because the first sustained damage.

Both floor specifications were existing designs - one the Imola GP specification, and another the version used during the Bahrain pre-season test.

(GMM)