Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has asked for more clarity and consistency from the FIA after the Maranello team received a €25,000 fine at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend. The punishment was due to an incident with Lance Stroll, as Carlos Sainz impeded the Aston Martin driver in a practice session for the Monte Carlo event. The Spanish driver was also given a reprimand that has left him just two warnings away from receiving a 10-place grid penalty this season.
The Race Stewards felt that Carlos Sainz had been fed “a series of grossly incorrect messages, by radio, about the gaps to the cars behind” and as a result he did not know that Lance Stroll was coming up behind him. At the same time, the Spaniard expressed his disapproval by calling for consistency after Nicholas Latifi cost him the race win in the Monaco Grnad Prix, by not letting him pass for almost half of lap despite being shown several blue flags.
In an interview after the Monaco Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver interrupted a question which aimed at his team team principal in order to point out the lack of consistency:
“I cannot count the times that I was impeded at Monaco this weekend, both being dangerous and not dangerous,” he said – “What I don’t understand is why we were fined €25,000 as a team for impeding, which I accept and I apologised to Lance, but other cases are not investigated and other people are not fined for exactly the same thing.” – he explained.
Carlos Sainz then highlighted the key moment that prevented him from scoring his first Formula 1 race win, after the crucial pit stop phase in Monte Carlo, as the Spanish driver lost a lot of time behind the lapped car of Nicholas Latifi and was not able to stau ahead of Sergio Perez, who went on to win the race.
“That cost us the race and there was no further action, and that was proper impeding. This is where we want more clarity and consistency, it’s as simple as that.” – he added.
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Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed he was “not happy” about the fine but will pay up at the end of a race weekend which led to many discussions with the FIA. The Maranello team launched two post-race protests against the Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, for allegedly crossing the yellow line on pit exit.
“As we know, the traffic situation in Monaco is always very difficult. And it seems that radio communication is critical. We did our best, we believe that it was certainly not dangerous. And we are not too happy about the fine. We believe it was not the right choice because, as a team and driver, we did our best in order to avoid it at the time and not do anything wrong with it. We need to accept those decisions but that doesn’t mean we agree with them.” – Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto concluded.
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