Amidst the chaos at the final restart at the 2023 Australian GP two weeks ago, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari lost out on eight positions because of a time penalty. The race was red-flagged twice, and the final restart took place with just two laps to go.
During the restart, Sainz went wheel to wheel with Fernando Alonso, making contact with the Aston Martin driver in turn one. Alonso spun and went out of the points at that moment before even more chaos ensued. As expected, the race was red-flagged once again, and it was evident that there wouldn’t be any more action that afternoon.
However, the race stewards decided to have the cars finish in the order they were in before that restart. The cars did go out on track again, but it was a lap of non-racing action behind the safety car. As a result, Alonso got his P3 position back, but for Sainz, things became worse.
The Spaniard was in P4, but the stewards felt that his shunt with Alonso’s AMR-23 was worthy of a five-second penalty. As a result, he went down to the 12th position.
What Ferrari needs to do to get Carlos Sainz his P4 back
In the F1 Nation podcast, Rob Smedley, a former Ferrari race engineer talks about what the Scuderia has to do to get Sainz his points back. Ferrari officially protested against the decision made by the race stewards, and a verdict is set to be announced on Tuesday, April 18th.
Smedley feels that in order for Sainz to get his place back two weeks after the race, Ferrari needs to unearth evidence that race control didn’t see before. He uses an example from a race back in 2014 where Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez suffered a big crash on lap one in Canada.
🎙️| Fernando Alonso defends Carlos Sainz:
“Probably the penalty [for Carlos] is too harsh because on lap one it is very difficult to judge what the grip level is.”
“We don’t go intentionally into another car because we know that we risk also our car and our final position.”
— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) April 2, 2023
Initially, it was ruled to be a ‘racing incident’ but after Williams found evidence suggesting that Perez had moved under braking, the Mexican got a time penalty ahead of the next race. For Sainz to get his fourth position back, Ferrari need to find similar substantial evidence, supporting their claim.
Was Sainz to blame for Fernando Alonso crash?
In the immediate aftermath of Sainz making contact with Alonso, the latter took to the team radio to lash out- not at Sainz, but at the race director. Alonso did not want a full standing restart with just one lap to go, and insisted that he foresaw a chaotic resumption to proceedings.
That lap didn’t even exist…they reset the order to discount it completely, and put Alonso back in P3, so how can they put a penalty for Carlos Sainz?
— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) April 2, 2023
Alonso, however, defended Sainz even though he benefited from the decision. Sainz on the other hand, was very upset with what he called the ‘most unfair penalty he had ever seen’. Ferrari will be hoping Sainz gets his place back, which will add 12 points to their otherwise low haul till now.
