Scuderia Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted to being frustrated by how events unfolded for the Maranello team in the third round of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, the Australian Grand Prix. The race stewards ruined the work done by Carlos Sainz to recover from outside the top ten with a questionable penalty to say the least.
Speaking to Sky Germany, the Ferrari team principal judged the FIA sentence as being “very severe”, underlining how the stewards didn’t even take five minutes to discuss it with the Spanish driver. A penalty that Carlos Sainz himself defined as “the most unfair of my life.”
The same feeling of frustration was expressed by Frederic Vasseur in front of the Sky Italia microphones. Interviewed after the race, the Scuderia Ferrari boss spoke without hiding a note of regret for an SF-23 car that had finally found its rhythm, but which paid the price in terms of result due to the accidents in the race:
“Today satisfaction is not the right word, there is more frustration. We had done a good job: although Carlos had been unlucky for the decision at the first red flag, he was able to do a good recovery. The pace was good, then came this penalty that we could go on discussing for hours,” he said – “The point is that they didn’t give us five minutes to discuss it, while it was done differently with Fernando Alonso at the last race. We will discuss it with the marshals but I don’t think the FIA can review the penalty” -the French manager pointed out.
Fred Vasseur therefore referred to the race in Saudi Arabia, when the penalty was given after the Grand Prix, only to cancel it and restore third place to the Spanish driver of Aston Martin.
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As for Charles Leclerc’s crash at the start of the race, Frederic Vasseur dismissed it as “Similar to what happened with Carlos. Two racing accidents.”
Meanwhile Carlos Sainz said that for now he had no intention of releasing any comments in front of the cameras. “I prefer not to talk because I would say bad words. The Spaniard #55 then announced that he would first discuss with the stewards why his penalty was “unfair”.
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