Last week, Spanish Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz conceded an extensive interview with El Partidazo in Spanish radio station COPE. There, Sainz touched upon the topic of TV broadcasters, saying that they prioritise showing "our girlfriends, famous people on TV and their reactions" rather than moments of the race.
"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,", he said. But Sainz complained that the TV broadcast didn't show any of the four of five overtakes he made, nor Fernando Alonso's pursuit of Lewis Hamilton.
His comments caused a Formula 1 spokesperson to respond to Sainz, saying that they've never compromised the key focus, "racing on track", while also providing "great context moments of the grandstands, high profile guests and locations".
"I hope they didn't take it personally", says Sainz
Knowing he might have gone a bit too far, Sainz backtracked a little when he got the chance at the press conference before the United States Grand Prix: "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, brought a bit of spiciness to the comment and went more viral worldwide and maybe what it should have been just a simple critique."
Sainz, however, stood on his ground: "It's clear that in Singapore the broadcaster didn't do a good job. I mean, there are other races where they do an incredible job and they show us things - incredible things and track action, but for Singapore it was not good" (via GPBlog), although he also downplayed the situation: "As a driver, it is the same thing, I have good weekends in my life where I perform at a very high level and other weekends, I'm not as good, I don't do a good job."
"For me, Singapore was just not good enough and they missed way too much track action. But that doesn't mean it's a criticism of them or the way they do their job. It's just Singapore as a one race, it's a shame that in a track where it's so difficult to overtake, we missed so many on-track battles. I hope they didn't take it personally or take it too hard, because it was just a simple critique", he concluded.
If you watch Formula 1 regularly, do you agree with Carlos Sainz views?