07/04/2023
NEWS STORY
Ferrari has called on the FIA to review the time penalty handed to Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard was deemed "wholly to blame" for the clash with Fernando Alonso at the second restart, and as a result was handed a 5s time penalty which, even though he remained fourth on the grid for the third restart, meant he dropped to twelfth at the finish.
Ahead of the third restart the Spaniard could be seen and heard remonstrating with his engineer, complaining that it was wrong to hand him the penalty without actually discussing the issue with him.
Confirming that Ferrari has now called for a review of the decision, Frederic Vasseur said: "The process is that first they will have a look at our petition to see if they can reopen the case and then we'll have a second hearing a bit later with the same stewards about the decision itself.
"To reopen the discussion is the first step," he added. "The outcome of this will be up to the FIA. For sure we are expecting a review of the decision because it's a petition for review. We are not going there to get sympathy."
While Sainz did indeed hit Alonso, causing the Aston Martin driver to spin and drop down the field, come the third restart the two-time world champion was back in third on the grid, almost as if the accident had never happened.
Furthermore, there is concern that while Sainz, who Vasseur described as being "devastated", was penalised and the decision reached almost immediately, it was over three hours before the stewards decided no further action was needed regarding the clash between the Alpine drivers that actually caused the third red flag, whilst the Logan Sargeant / Nyck de Vries clash wasn't even deemed worthy of investigation.
"What we can expect is at least to have an open discussion," said Vasseur, "and also for the good of the sport to avoid to have this kind of decision when you have three cases on the same corner and not the same decision.
"The biggest frustration for Carlos was to not have hearings, because the case was very special and in this case I think it would have made sense."