By Alan Baldwin
(Reuters) – Ferrari have asked Formula One’s governing body to review a five-second penalty that dropped Spaniard Carlos Sainz from fourth to 12th in last Sunday’s triple red-flagged Australian Grand Prix.
Team principal Fred Vasseur told reporters on a Zoom call that the request for a review was submitted to the governing FIA on Thursday.
“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,” he said.
“To reopen the discussion is the first step. The outcome of this will be up to the FIA,” added the Frenchman. “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.”
Spaniard Sainz made contact with compatriot Fernando Alonso after the third standing start at Melbourne’s Albert Park, spinning the Aston Martin around.
The race was then stopped for the third time after the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly collided, with both retiring.
Sainz was third after the collision but the race was completed behind the safety car with cars reverting to their positions at the previous start and no overtaking allowed. Alonso ended up third.
Sainz crossed the line fourth but the penalty dropped him out of the points as the field finished metres apart.
His team mate Charles Leclerc had already retired on the opening lap, the Monegasque racer’s second no-score from three starts.
The stewards took no further action over the Ocon and Gasly collision, deciding it was a racing incident, and none also over a turn one collision between Williams rookie Logan Sargeant and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries.
In Sainz’s case they decided immediately — without hearing from the drivers or teams involved — that Alonso was significantly ahead at the first corner and Sainz was wholly to blame for driving into him.
“Notwithstanding the fact that it was the equivalent of a first-lap incident, we considered that there was sufficient gap for Car 55 (Sainz) to take steps to avoid the collision and (he)failed to do so,” they said in a statement at the time.
Vasseur did not want to disclose details of Ferrari’s reasoning for the petition, out of courtesy to the FIA, but observed that the stewards had treated the other incidents differently.
He said they could also have waited as the podium was not affected.
“What we can expect is at least to have an open discussion… 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,” said the Frenchman.
“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.”
Vasseur said Sainz was ‘devastated’ by the penalty.
The Spaniard said over the radio at the time that the penalty was unacceptable and the stewards needed to wait and hear him out.
“No, it cannot be, Ricky,” he told his race engineer Riccardo Adami. “Do I deserve to be out of the points? No. No. It’s unacceptable. Tell them. It’s unacceptable.
“They need to wait until the race is finished and discuss with me.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Clare Fallon)
