Sainz’s car was badly damaged when he ran over a water valve cover that had popped up early in the first session at the new venue, while Esteban Ocon also ran over it and suffered serious floor and chassis damage.
Both drivers had to switch to spare chassis for FP2, while Sainz picked up a 10-place grid penalty for taking an extra energy store and internal combustion engine.
Stella said that the incident was a reminder that track safety is paramount.
"Anytime you have an issue with manhole covers, it's very disruptive,” he told Autosport. “Like you saw with Williams in Baku [for George Russell in 2019].
"I think Jenson [Button] hit a manhole cover in Monaco [in 2016], it just destroyed the front wing immediately. And in that case, it was a low speed, because it was out of corner one in Monaco.
“So I think after this episode, there will be a raised level of awareness as to the fact that the standards associated with this potential risk need to be just higher. And essentially, it needs to be absolutely failsafe."
Stella admitted that he was relieved that the FIA was eventually able to run FP2 given the need to check the track thoroughly.
"On new tracks and street circuits we have seen before that these kinds of issues can happen,” he said. “In fairness, when I saw that type of issue, I was a little worried that a solution could have been difficult.
Source: Autosport