Carlos Sainz has claimed that his recent comments about the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix broadcast were “blown out of proportion”.
The Spanish driver previously critiqued the broadcast of the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit for seemingly prioritising showing the wives, girlfriends and attending celebrities over several exciting moments of on-track action.
“It’s becoming a bit of a trend,” he previously told Spanish radio station Cadena COPE’s El Partidazo. “It must have worked for them at one time, that people found it interesting to see our girlfriends, to see famous people on TV, their reactions and so on.
“I understand that if there is an overtaking manoeuvre, a very tense moment in the race, then showing a shot of their reaction is understandable. If the production team sees that it has worked in the past, then they will do it.
“But as long as you respect the competition and always focus on the important moments of the race, last weekend they didn’t show any of the four or five overtakes I made at the end of the race, nor did they show Fernando’s pursuit of Lewis, they missed a lot of things.
“So, the other stuff is fine, I get it, but you shouldn’t miss the most important things. For me, they even exaggerate a bit by showing the celebrities and girlfriends.”
An F1 spokesperson responded to Sainz’s initial comments.
“We always focus on giving our fans the best possible footage of the race and never compromise the key focus – the racing on track,” they said. “Our team does a great job of covering a highly complex situation with multiple cars at different points on a track and also provide great context moments of the grandstands, high profile guests and the locations we race at. We are always in pursuit of excellence and improvement in what we deliver.”
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Now, speaking ahead of the United States Grand Prix, Sainz argued that his comments had been blown out of proportion and hoped that the broadcast team had not been upset by the remarks.
“But I didn’t need an answer. Like always, I think my comments were a bit blown out of proportion. I think the fact that I mentioned the girlfriends or the WAGs, however you call them, it brought a bit of spice to the comment and went a bit more viral worldwide than maybe what it should have been.
“Just a simple critique, I think it’s clear that in Singapore, the broadcast didn’t do a good job. I mean, there are other races where they do an incredible job and they show us incredible things and incredible track action. For me, Singapore was not good. But the same thing, I have good weekends in my life where I perform at a very high level, and other weekends I don’t do a good job, and you guys analyse it, you give me a rating. I did a four out of 10, and by the time you tell me I did a 10 out of 10.
“And obviously, everyone’s in their own right to say it. For me, Singapore was just not good enough and they missed way too much track action. But that doesn’t mean it’s a critique of them or the way they do their job, it’s just Singapore as one race was… it’s a shame that at a track where it’s so difficult to overtake, we missed so many on-track battles.
“I think at the time I mentioned girlfriends, looking back at it, they were not being shown too much, and it was more that they were very focused on a non-battle, like there was going to be an accident or there was going to be an overtake. When you look at it, there was never going to be action. But I hope they didn’t take it personally or too hard because it was just a simple critique of Singapore.”
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