Photo by Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ferrari seems to have a strong argument regarding Carlos Sainz Jr.’s penalty at the Australian Grand Prix
While the Formula One world looks ahead to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of April, it seems we are still not yet done with the Australian Grand Prix.
Despite that race ending over two weeks ago, there is still an outside chance that the results could change. FIA has agreed to hear an appeal from Ferrari regarding the five-second penalty handed down to driver Carlos Sainz Jr. following a collision with Fernando Alonso after a late restart.
That penalty dropped Sainz from fourth place to a finish outside the points.
FIA announced on Thursday that they were granting Ferrari’s “Right of Review,” and that they would be holding a hearing on April 18th to revisit the end of the race.
The incident in question happened following a red flag in the late stages of the Australian Grand Prix. Stewards stopped the race after Kevin Magnussen struck the wall, and debris flooded the track. On the standing restart chaos ensued, with Sainz coming into contact with Alonso, and then both Alpine drivers — Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly — knocking each other out of the race.
The race was stopped again, and that is when Sainz learned of the penalty. It was a bitter pill for the Ferrari driver to swallow:
In the days following the Grand Prix, Ferrari Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur remained critical of the decision and pointed to some inconsistencies with how race officials handled similar situations. Following the collision between Gasly and Ocon at the end of the race, stewards met with both drivers to consider any penalty.
However, race officials termed the collision between the two to be a “first lap incident” and declined to hand down any penalties.
Vasseur is wondering why Sainz never had the chance to speak with officials — which is what the driver is arguing for in the above clip — and why his collision with Alonso was not also termed a “first lap incident.” Speaking last week about the end of the Australian Grand Prix, Vasseur had this to say:
“Carlos was devastated on Sunday and I can perfectly understand sometimes after the race with the pressure, the emotion and so, there are extremes in terms of reaction,” Vasseur said. “But I think he was devastated on Sunday and we did a petition for the review of the case, we will send it to the FIA.
“As we are discussing I don’t want to disclose any details. The only thing about Gasly, (Esteban) Ocon, and we also saw Sargeant, Nyck De Vries, Turn 1, the reaction of the stewards was not the same.
“The process is that first they will have a look on our petition to see if they can re-open the case, then we will have a second hearing a bit later, with the same stewards, at the next meeting about the decision itself. We can expect at least to have an open discussion with them for the good of the sport to avoid to have this kind of decision where you have three cases on the same corner but not the same decision.
“The biggest frustration from Carlos — you heard it on the radio — was to not have the hearings because the case was very special. In this case it would have made sense as the race was over, it was not affecting the podium, to have hearings as Gasly and Ocon had.”
Given how the collision between the Alpine drivers was handled, it appears Ferrari has a very strong argument to bring to the table Monday.
