Eight minutes into first free practice for the inaugural race weekend on the streets of Las Vegas, Sainz suffered huge damage to the chassis, floor and power unit of his Ferrari after ripping up a concrete frame of a manhole cover on the iconic Strip.
In a separate incident, Alpine's Esteban Ocon also suffered extensive damage, prompting a chassis replacement.
The Sainz incident caused a red flag, with the session soon abandoned as track workers were required to check every manhole cover on the 6.2km street layout, with discussions taking place to extend Thursday night's FP2 instead.
When asked to comment about the damage to Sainz's car, team principal Vasseur said: "The situation is that we damaged completely the monocoque, the engine the battery. And I think it's just unacceptable.
"We had a very tough one. This will cost us a fortune. We f*cked up the session for Carlos. We won't be part of the FP2 for sure, we have to change the chassis.
"Okay, the show is the show and everything is going well but I think it is just unacceptable for F1 today."
Source: Autosport