Daniel Ricciardo has slammed the FIA for giving Carlos Sainz a 10-place grid penalty after the Spaniard suffered an unfortunate mishap on the Las Vegas Grand Prix track on Thursday night. The Australian believes that the penalty is unfair and requests the FIA to “have some common sense“.
As quoted by motorsport-total.com, Daniel Ricciardo stated, “In an incident like this, you would expect people to use common sense. So no, I don’t agree with that at all“.
Sainz received the penalty for no fault of his own or Ferrari. The 29-year-old just found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time when his SF-23 suffered massive damage after hitting a drain cover.
After giving their decision, the stewards did note though that had there been an option to avoid penalizing Sainz due to “unusual and unfortunate circumstances,” they would have definitely done so. However, as per the sporting regulations, they made it clear that they had no option but to hand the Spaniard a 10-place grid penalty.
🇺🇸Eventful and long day. We seem competitive and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. However, the situation of the manhole damage and the 10-place penalty is not acceptable, but we’ll deal with it.
–#CarlosSainz pic.twitter.com/ycGPtNiTTi
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) November 17, 2023
“The stewards determine that notwithstanding the fact that the damage was caused by highly unusual external circumstances. Article 2.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations obliges all officials, including the Stewards, to apply the regulations as they are written,” read their document (as quoted by formula1.com).
Unsurprisingly, the FIA’s decision did not impress Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur. The Frenchman voiced out his frustrations during the team principal press conference.
Vasseur slams F1 for “unacceptable” damage to Sainz’s car
Fred Vasseur was in no mood to be at the press conference as he furiously replied to a reporter when asked about the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend so far as a whole. In reply, the Frenchman said (as quoted by Sky Sports), “We f***** up the session for Carlos and he won’t be part of FP2, that’s for sure“.
The 55-year-old then slammed F1 by explaining how it is “unacceptable” that his side has been punished for no fault of their own. While Vasseur lashed out at F1 for the same, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff defended the sport.
During the same press conference, the Austrian furiously said, “They’re going to seal the drain covers, and nobody’s going to talk about that tomorrow morning anymore. It’s completely ridiculous, completely ridiculous. FP1 – how can you even dare trying to talk bad about the event that sets the new standards, new standards to everything?”
Meanwhile, it is also likely that it was Mercedes who played a role in getting Carlos Sainz penalized. Since Mercedes and Ferrari are in a tight battle for second in the championship, the Silver Arrows will try their best to gain every advantage that they can.
With Mercedes currently having a 20-point lead over third-placed Ferrari with two races remaining in the 2023 season, a 10-place grid penalty for Sainz will definitely hurt the Italian outfit severely.
