Ferrari hit out at ‘ridiculous’ race stewards decision to quickly issue 5-second penalty for Charles Leclerc. Ferrari hit out at 'ridiculous' race stewards decision.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was victorious at the the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, and an odd set of events on the last lap meant the Dutchman was able to secure his second straight Formula 1 world championship. Stewards at the Suzuka Circuit issued a five-second penalty to Charles Leclerc on the last lap, which meant Sergio Perez finished in second place and the Ferrari driver finished in third place.

Charles Leclerc actually crossed the line in second moments after a near-miss incident with Sergio Perez. The stewards reviewed the incident and after just a few minutes, without even hearing from the drivers, considered that Charles put himself in a more advantageous position by cutting across the final chicane. As a result, the Ferrari driver was slapped with a five-second penalty.

At the end of the 2022 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, who remained in Maranello this weekend, wanted to congratulate Max Verstappen and Red Bull for the world title, but at the same time pointed out to the lack of consistency from the race stewards, especially taking into consideration the events we saw just seven days ago in Singapore:

“Congratulations to Max. I don’t want to comment on the penalty because it’s ridiculous that they spent 3 hours in Singapore, but only a few minutes here. Today they didn’t want to hear from the drivers, in Singapore they did. Charles didn’t gain an advantage. Today, everything was a bit bad. Even the start behind the safety car in critical conditions. A crane on the track.” – the Ferrari boss explained, as reported by the Italian media after the Suzuka race.

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Mattia Binotto also admitted Ferrari were “confused” and did not think Max Verstappen was champion, because they did not expect full points to be awarded. He explained that Formula One needs to review and look into what the intent was when the rule was changed.