Carlos Sainz penalty: Italian media accuses FIA of 'prejudice and bias' against Ferrari

Ferrari rejected with losses
As we analyzed a few days ago, the FIA Stewards rejected the appeal presented by Scuderia Ferrari to review the five-second penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz for the collision with Fernando Alonso in the final stages of the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit. In the statement issued by the Stewards, the new elements which according to the Maranello Scuderia were significant were defined “to be polite, ambiguous” (the telemetry) and “useless” (Carlos Sainz’s testimony) since in the case of the driver’s comments, if they had been considered important then the Madrilenian would have been summoned already at the end of the Australian Grand Prix by the race stewards.

Even with regard to telemetry – which had already been viewed ‘live’ by the stewards to establish whether Carlos Sainz was to be penalized or not – the stewards added that even the data brought by Scuderia Ferrari did nothing other than corroborate the thesis according to which the Spanish driver is fully (and solely) responsible for the collision with Fernando Alonso.

FIA biased towards Ferrari?
“Once again those who govern things in Formula One have highlighted the absolute lack of attention to what Ferrari says, supports, proposes, argues” – writes Italian journalist and F1 expert Leo Turrini in a recent edition of ‘Il Resto del Carlino’ – “Even regardless of the dynamics of the Melbourne episode, once again the disinterest of the international federation for the events involving the Prancing Horse is striking. It almost seems that in the FIA headquarters there is a sort of prevention, if not actual prejudice against the requests coming from Maranello“.

“Something isn’t working on the Ferrari – FIA axis – continues the article – in 2019 the head of the Ferrari racing department was Mattia Binotto. Today the Frenchman Fred Vasseur sits in that chair. Apparently, nothing has changed.” – Leo Turrini added.

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It is not the first time, in fact, that the attempt by Scuderia Ferrari to use the right of review has not been successful. Already in 2019, for example, the five-second penalty received by Sebastian Vettel in the Canadian Grand Prix which was decisive for handing the victory to Lewis Hamilton was not canceled despite the massive from Ferrari.