Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has harshly criticized the poor race management at the 2023 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix regarding the accident between Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso. The stewards didn’t allow even a minute to discuss it and immediately decided to penalize the Ferrari driver.
After the red flag, with one lap to go, the drivers had repositioned themselves on the grid to restart. In turn 1, however, Carlos Sainz made a mistake trying to overtake Fernando Alonso. His car collided with the Aston Martin driver, causing the ex-Ferrari man to spin and return to the track outside the top ten. The stewards had decided to blame the Ferrari driver for the accident, giving him not only a 5-second penalty but also removing 2 points from his driving licence.
A big penalty because the Ferrari #55 paid dearly: from a deserved fourth place he dropped to twelfth in the last restart of the Australian GP. Carlos Sainz’s painful team radio was not enough: when he heard of the penalty, he begged his team to change the race stewards’ mind, telling them to wait for them to discuss it after the race.
Fred Vasseur was not surprised, and lashed out at the FIA’s inconsistency in making decisions and changing regulations. In the race in Bahrain, it took the stewards 30 laps before noticing that Fernando Alonso’s car had been touched when he returned to serve a penalty for being out of position on the grid. The penalty was only upheld shortly after the podium celebration and was lifted three hours later.
“My job is to draw the positive and negative things,” Fred Vasseur said in an interview for Channel 4. Praising Carlos Sainz’s excellent comeback, the Ferrari boss said he was disappointed because the penalty had no influence on the final result:
“I think this is a pity. Last race we changed the regulation twice in 10 minutes regarding the pit stop for Fernando Alonso. They could have done the same today, [or] at least discussed it. Last race they took 30 laps to decide whether or not Alonso was in the pits. Today it took five seconds.”
Why didn’t Ferrari appeal?
And regarding a possible appeal against the penalty, Fred Vasseur hinted that his hands are tied: “I’m not a big fan of this sort of thing. It’s a racing incident, but with such a collision you always have two cars in the crash and you have two ways of looking at the incident. Coming from Ferrari and being Carlos’ team principal, my position is not the same as others in the paddock. But I think that in this kind of situation we could take five minutes to discuss and look at the data.” – the French manager pointed out.
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso also felt that Carlos Sainz’s penalty was “too severe”.
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