British former racing driver Martin Brundle, currently a commentator for Sky Sports has claimed that the five-second penalty received by Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz for his incident with Fernando Alonso at the 5.278-kilometre Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne is an “inconsistent” punishment.
Carlos was P4 on the grid as the Australian Grand Prix restarted following a second red flag and with just a couple of laps to go until the end of the race he tried an overtaking move on the Aston Martin car of Fernando Alonso. However, the Ferrari man hit the right-rear tyre of Fernando Alonso’s car. The two-time Formula 1 world champion was sent into a spin and returned to the track outside the top ten, while Carlos Sainz’s SF-23 car escaped without any damage while running in third place at this stage.
However, another red flag was shown due to several incidents that took place in the midfield, with Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in the wall at turn two. Carlos Sainz was informed of the penalty while waiting for the final lap of the Australian Grand Prix to be behind the safety car – aware that he would not have any chance of finishing in the points.
Carlos Sainz was of course furious, describing the call as the “most unfair penalty”, pointing out that he intended to discuss the matter with the stewards.
Martin Brundle refelcts on Carlos Sainz’s penalty at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne
Martin Brundle posted on Twitter: “That’s an inconsistent penalty for Sainz from a standing start in the early corners.”
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The stewards felt that Carlos Sainz was “wholly to blame” for the incident with Fernando Alonso, fact which cannot be disputed. Yet several times the FIA proved to be lenient in terms of decisions linked to first-lap and standing-start crashes in the last few seasons, taking into consideration the cluster of cars in addition to the cold tyres that can course issues for drivers, who cannot evaluate grip levels accurately.
Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was also given two penalty points for the incident, with 12 accumulated in any 12-month period resulting in a race ban.
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