Why Ferrari’s attempt to overturn Sainz’s penalty looks like a long shot · RaceFans

Ferrari have confirmed they will ask the stewards of the Australian Grand Prix to reconsider and, they hope, overturn the penalty which cost Carlos Sainz Jnr fourth place in the race.

The FIA learned on Thursday last week the team has applied for a review of the penalty Sainz received for his collision with Fernando Alonso after the standing restart on lap 57 of the race.

Ferrari is taking advantage of the same ‘right of review’ procedure which Alonso’s team used to cancel a penalty he had been given in the previous round. But that was one of few occasions in recent history in which a team has successfully used the right of review to reverse a decision by the stewards.

As Ferrari knows, persuading the stewards to overturn a penalty decision is not easy. They tried to cancel the five-second time penalty which cost Sebastian Vettel victory in the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, They tried to cancel“>but failed. The year before Williams also tried to provoke a review of incidents which occured during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, to no avail.

There were four unsuccessful review bids in 2021 alone, involving Mercedes at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Aston Martin at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull at the British Grand Prix and Alfa Romeo at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The examples of successful cases are far fewer. In addition to Aston Martin, Red Bull won a hearing which led to Lewis Hamilton being penalised at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. Haas also won a right of review following the United States Grand Prix last year, though it was subsequently overturned following an appeal by rivals Alpine.

On sheer weight of numbers, Ferrari’s chances don’t look good. But do the substance of the cases give the team and its supporters grounds to be optimistic that Sainz may get his fourth place back?

Ferrari must convince the stewards of two points in order to win their case. First, they must show there is a significant and relevant new piece of evidence which the stewards should consider. Second, that evidence must convince the stewards to overturn the penalty.

Many bids for appeal have fallen at the first hurdle, including Ferrari’s 2019 effort. The team submitted a considerable amount of information which the stewards noted was not new.

Ferrari also provided a video analysis of the incident in question by former F1 driver-turned Sky television presenter Karun…