Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has reacted with disappointment to the rejection of Ferrari’s request to review the penalty against the Spaniard at the Formula 1 race in Australia. He considers the five-second penalty that threw him back from fourth to twelfth place to be behind the safety car to be “disproportionate”.
Ferrari had criticized the commissioners after the decision for not listening to Sainz after his collision with Fernando Alonso at the Melbourne restart before handing out their penalty. Among other things, Ferrari wanted to submit his statements as new evidence for the reopening of the case.
But the FIA did not see any “significant and relevant new information” and rejected the application from the Italian racing team. “We are very disappointed that the FIA did not give us the right to review,” Sainz wrote on Twitter after the decision.
Sainz finds punishment “disproportionate”
More than two weeks after the incident, the Spaniard still believes the punishment was “disproportionate”. “I think it should have been checked at least on the basis of the evidence and arguments that we have presented,” said the Ferrari driver.
In fact, from a neutral point of view, there are arguments for Sainz’s point of view: Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) were not penalized for their restart collisions, although they completely eliminated other drivers – albeit also retired themselves.
However, the effects of Sainz’s collision have been reversed by restoring the original launch order.
There is also an argument that a five-second penalty is too harsh when the race ends behind the safety car. As a result, the Ferrari driver from fourth place fell completely out of the points, which would not be the case if the race had ended normally.
Ferrari driver Sainz ticked off Australia
Sainz demands: “We need to keep working together to improve certain things for the future. Consistency and the decision-making process has been a hot topic for many seasons and we need to be clearer for the good of the sport.”
But he also emphasizes that Australia is now in the past and is over for him: “I’m concentrating 100 percent on the next race in Baku,” explains Sainz.
Ferrari had no points in Melbourne after Charles Leclerc’s first-round exit and is fourth in the overall standings after three races. After fourth and sixth place from the first two races, Sainz is fifth in the drivers’ standings, Leclerc is only tenth after two retirements and seventh place in Jeddah.