Ferrari and the right to review denied
Scuderia Ferrari tried to exercise the right to review the five-second penalty received by Carlos Sainz at the end of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, a penalty which was fatal for the Spanish driver due to the race ending behind the Safety Car. As a result, the Ferrari man slipped from fourth to twelfth place. As evidence to reopen the case, Scuderia Ferrari provided telemetry, Carlos Sainz’s statements that he had not been heard by the race stewards at the Albert Park circuit and the statements of other drivers about the poor grip on the occasion of the second restart.
The Stewards rejected all the elements underlining that none of these had the fundamental requirements on which the right of review is based, i.e. being new and not available to the stewards at the time the sanction was established and/or being relevant. Carlos Sainz therefore remains fifth in the Drivers’ standings with 20 points, while Ferrari remains fourth with 26.
Carlos Sainz’s disappointment
“I’m very disappointed that the FIA did not grant us a right to review. Two weeks later, I still think the penalty is too disproportionate and I believe it should have at least been reviewed on the basis of the evidence and reasoning we have presented. We have to continue working together to improve certain things for the future. The consistency and decision-making process has been a hot topic for many seasons now and we need to be clearer for the sake of our sport. Anyway what happened in Australia is now a thing of the past and I’m 100% focused on the next race in Baku.” – the Ferrari driver wrote in a post on his official Instagram profile after the decision was officially confirmed on Tuesday.
The history was against Ferrari, the problem is the type of penalty
As we have recalled, the past attempts in terms of right of inspection did not leave Ferrari great hopes of being able to reopen the question linked to a penalty that is difficult to contest in the light of the dynamics, although it is strange that the contact between Logan Sargeant and Nyck De Vries (the driver Williams clearly blocks the Dutchman) was instead not taken into consideration by the race stewards in terms of penalties to be assigned following the contacts in the second restart.
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That Carlos Sainz was to be considered as responsible for the collision with Fernando Alonso is quite clear. The fact that the penalty was five seconds in the Australian Grand Prix and not a grid penalty for the next race meant that Carlos Sainz dropped out of the points due to the race ending under the Safety Car regime. It should be remembered, however, that the stewards assign penalties ‘mechanically’ without taking into consideration the evolution of the race.
