Ferrari has sent to the FIA a petition for a right to review the penalty that was handed out to Carlos Sainz late in the Australian Grand Prix.
Sainz was handed a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin at the second restart of a chaotic race at Melbourne’s Albert Park on Sunday.
Alonso and Sainz had lined up third and fourth on the grid, only for the latter to send the two-time F1 champion into a spin as they went through Turn 1.
Given the heavy crash involving Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, and with Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries in his AlphaTauri also in the gravel, the race was red-flagged for a third time.
During the wait for the four cars to be cleared, Sainz was informed of his penalty, producing a frustrated and angry reaction.
With the remaining 12 cars lining up on the grid in the order they had conducted the previous restart, Sainz knew with the last lap to be conducted behind the safety car, he would drop from fourth to outside the top 10. He finished 12th and last of those that took the chequered flag.
Stewards’ reaction different – Ferrari
Ferrari believes there is a case to answer given the speed in which the stewards took to determine the incident with Sainz and Alonso, yet waited until after the race to look at the accident involving Ocon and Gasly.
No action was taken as it was determined to be a ‘first-lap’ racing incident, whilst that involving Sargeant and De Vries was dismissed at the time.
“The reaction of the stewards was not the same,” said Vasseur, speaking to invited media, including Speedcafe. Even Alonso felt Sainz had been hard done by.
“I can perfectly understand sometimes after a race, and you have to understand that with the pressure, the emotion, and they (the drivers) can be a bit extreme in terms of a reaction, but he (Sainz) was devastated on Sunday.
“So we did a petition for a review of the case. We have sent it to the FIA.”
Ferrari now has to present evidence that was not available to the stewards at the time.
Should the stewards decide the information is new and relevant, they will convene a hearing and make a decision, otherwise, the petition will be dismissed.
“What we can expect is to at least have an open discussion with them (the stewards) and also, for the good of the sport, to avoid having this kind of decision when you have three cases at the same corner and not the same decision,” added Vasseur.
“The biggest frustration was from Carlos, as you heard over the radio, to not have a hearing because the case was very special.
“In this case, it would have made sense considering the race was over, it was not affecting the podium, and to have a hearing as Gasly and Ocon had.
“I don’t want to blame someone because with racing incidents, and I’ve been doing this job for 30 years now, each time we have a crash on track you always have two versions, with different feedback and a different outcome, depending on the drivers.
“It’s not an easy job, and also it’s difficult to take a decision when it’s during the race, and we are always asking (for the stewards) to take a decision during the race.
“This race was probably a bit particular with three red flags, the two restarts and another behind the safety car, and that’s where the frustration came from because we had the feeling the Ocon-Gasly situation was treated a bit differently.”
“We have an argument” – Vasseur
Vasseur is confident the stewards will grant the petition and to again review the incident, hopefully before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend at the end of the month given there is time.
“It will be up to the stewards to decide what is the right penalty,” said Vasseur. “But for me at least, for Carlos, for the team, the right decision is to reopen the discussion.
“It’s a first step and now the outcome of this will be up to the FIA but we have an argument, for sure, which I will keep for the FIA.
“We are expecting a review of the decision because it’s a petition for review. We are not going there to get the same decision.”
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