The FIA dismissed Ferrari’s request to review Carlos Sainz’s penalty in Australia, an infraction that dropped him from fourth to last in the final results of the Rolex Australian Grand Prix on April 2. Did Ferrari get a fair shake?
The FIA seems intent on showing Ferrari no mercy in this matter. The incident of record happened on a late standing restart after one of three red flags in the Australian GP. Sainz did indeed make contact with Fernando Alonso, knocking his fellow Spaniard into a spin into turn 1. But keep in mind, there were only two laps remaining in the race, which meant every driver knew the quality of their start would likely determine their final result.
So it seems the FIA could have shown a bit of leniency to Sainz, considering that he, like every other driver, was entering turn 1 with no intentions of backing down.
Punishing Sainz for knocking Alonso out of P3 seemed necessary and fair, but, due to the mayhem that occurred behind Sainz on the restart, the race was red flagged again. In the ensuing restart, cars were returned to their order before the previous restart, basically nullifying the restart, meaning the Sainz-Alonso incident basically didn’t even happen. So, punishing Sainz then seemed unnecessary and unfair, since it cost Alonso nothing. Why punish Sainz for actions that did not cost anyone anything, save for some minor car damage?
After the race, Ferrari did lodge a petition to review the stewards decision. To do so, Ferrari was required to provide new information that had not been available to the stewards at the time of their decision. This information included 1) the telemetry data from Sainz’s car after the second restart, 2) Sainz’s witness statement, 3) other drivers’ witness statements, mainly from post-race interviews.
All three were quickly rejected, which makes it clear that the FIA’s reaction time in rejecting Ferrari’s inquiries was much faster than Sainz’s reaction time on the restart.
Bottom line: Formula 1 does not have time to listen to Ferrari’s problem. And they did so by stamping in red ink “Stop whining” on Ferrari’s appeals.
Italian police recently arrested four people in connection with the theft of Charles Leclerc’s luxury Richard Mille watch, which was snatched off his wrist last April in Italy’s coastal resort town of Viareggio. This has to be great news for Leclerc, right?
Sure, it’s great Leclerc will get his watch…
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