“Ferrari are absolutely doomed”- Carlos Sainz corrects his own race engineer after being misinformed on time penalty

Carlos Sainz was given a five-second time penalty, which his Ferrari race engineer though was a stop and go penalty. 

Ferrari came into the French Grand Prix feeling confident of their chances. Over the practice sessions and in qualifying, it was evident that the Scuderia by far had the fastest car this weekend.

Sainz started the race from P19 after taking a grid penalty for engine component changes but felt confident that he had enough to fight their way up the field. He did make it up to P10 when his teammate Charles Leclerc spun out and crashed into the barriers, ending his race.

Ferrari decided to bring Sainz in for a pit-stop after the safety car was deployed and his race went completely downhill from there.

The pit crew held him off for a slow stop and then released him at a wrong time that nearly saw him collide with Esteban Ocon. Race control ended up giving the 27-year old a five-second time penalty.

Also read: “He’s alright, thanks for asking”- Max Verstappen checks on Charles Leclerc after 5-time race winner crashes out at French GP

F1 Twitter baffled that Carlos Sainz had to correct his own race engineer

In a stop and go time penalty, the crew members cannot work on the car or change it’s tyres after the driver has stopped. It’s a bigger punishment than an ordinary time penalty, and ruins races on several occasions for drivers.

Sainz’s race engineer Riccardo Adami told him that he had just been given a five second stop and go penalty. An irritated Sainz replied, “It’s not stop and go Ricky!”

Fans were absolutely baffled to see an F1 driver having to correct his own race engineer. The team on the pit-wall should be more aware of what penalties are being handed out, and not the person driving the car.

Sainz climbed his way up to P3 on his medium compound tyres, and could very well have finished there. George Russell and Sergio Perez were scrambling for places at the end. This meant the Spaniard could have opened up a five-second gap in the remaining few laps.

In spite of that, Ferrari decided to bring him for new tyres with barely 10 laps to go. The Madrid born driver ended up finishing P5 with an extra point for the fastest lap of the race.

Also read: AlphaTauri’s multi-millionaire sponsorship team disclosed during the French Grand Prix due to the country’s market regulators