Ferrari boss, Frederic Vasseur admits to understanding Carlos Sainz' frustration on Sunday, agreeing that the stewards should have at least spoken to the Spanish driver.

Following Charles Leclerc's first lap exit from the Australian Grand Prix having been tagged by Lance Stroll, Ferrari's day went from bad to worse when Carlos Sainz was handed a time penalty which put him to the back of the field and out of the points.

Ahead of the final stages of the race the Spaniard had been running fourth, then came the stoppage that followed Kevin Magnussen's crash.

At the restart, the Spaniard tagged countryman Fernando Alonso causing him to spin out of the points, while further incidents involving the Alpine pair and Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries caused the race to be red-flagged yet again.

As the word and his dog awaited the stewards decision on what the order for the third restart would be, it was announced that Sainz had been handed a 5s time penalty for "causing a collision".

Due to the fact that the field would not race for the final lap and would instead maintain closed order until the flag this meant that Sainz - who would restart in fourth again - faced certain demotion down the final standings.

The fact that the stewards reached their decision without talking to the Ferrari driver was bad enough, but adding to his frustration was the fact that the restart order was based on the standings from the previous start, thereby promoting Alonso back to third position. Consequently, Sainz was being punished for something that, as far as the history books will suggest, never happened.

Ahead of the restart, the Spaniard could be seen and heard telling his engineer, Ricky Adami that the stewards were wrong.

"No, it cannot be, Ricky, this will put me out of the points," he pleaded. "It's unacceptable, tell them it is unacceptable. Tell them they need to wait until the race is finished and discuss with me. Ask them please, please, please, please, please, to wait and discuss with me. The penalty is not deserved, it's too severe."

Team boss, Fredric Vasseur understands his driver's frustration.

"Frustration is the right word," agreed the Frenchman, according to Motorsport.com. "The situation with Carlos is very tough for the team.

"The test is tough, because if you consider the race, he had to do an extra pit stop with the safety car at the beginning, and he went through the field," he added, referring to the fact that Sainz, like George Russell and Kevin Magnussen, pitted under the safety car following Alex Albon's crash, only for the race to be subsequently red-flagged thereby allowing his rivals a 'free' stop.

"And then we can speak about the incident, if it's a race incident or not," added Vasseur. "For me, it is the same lap 1 story, when there was contact between Lance and Charles on lap 1. But the frustration is probably more the fact that they took the decision in five minutes."

Asked if he felt the stewards should have talked to Sainz, he replied: "And look on the data. You can look at the data and know if Carlos was in a panic mode, if he already hit the brakes.

"Fernando said the penalty was a bit harsh. I think in this situation, when it won't impact the result, it makes sense."

Referring to Sainz' reaction to the penalty, he said: "You have to understand the situation, he had to do an extra pit stop at the beginning with the first red flag, that we were nowhere then, and then he had a mega comeback. His pace was very strong and very consistent, and he came back not far away from the podium, and then to lose it like this, not from nowhere but before the end, I can perfectly understand the emotion and the fact that he was in shock with that.

"I'm not complaining," he insisted, "because it's always difficult to take decisions when you have to do it live. But coming back to the decision about Carlos, they had time to take the decision. In this case, they have to take time.

"And for sure if you have to push on the button of the red flag it's another story, it's about safety, you have to do it in the rush."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 05/04/2023 22:30

"@Ricardo_Sanchez...With calls from some social quarters for Wittich to be sacked I expect that you've already sent the FIA your CV Lol."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 05/04/2023 17:48

"Not only was the penalty unfair and unwarranted - applied for something that officially didn’t even occur - there was no need for a rush to make the decision. It wouldn’t have affected the podium ceremony and who cares about having a provisional result lower down the order, whilst we await a stewards’ meeting? "

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by kenji, 05/04/2023 13:40

"@ Mad Matt....I agree with your summary. Given the events that took place on Sunday would've placed the stewards et al under immense strain vis a vis timely decisions. I think that all up they did well."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by Pavlo, 05/04/2023 9:28

"This is the result of stewards being inconsistent and never held responsible for mistakes.
FIA needs to be thankful for Carlos playing it safe. He could as well brake before the line, provoking crashes and hoping to increase the margins, with the maximum risk of getting 5s. This was better strategy than just finishing, and totally dangerous and provoked by the stewards."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Mad Matt, 05/04/2023 8:22

"I like Carlos but I have to agree with @kenji. I'd also add that I prefer quicker stewarding decisions rather than getting a decision 20 laps later... or worse still, after the race.

I think I'd prefer the occasional stewarding errors, if the decisions were reasonably quick, rather than a 100% forensic analysis with a penalty given after the race."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by kenji, 05/04/2023 0:18

"I can fully understand the let down being suffered by Sainz after he drove a solid race but that is irrelevant. The only thing that needs consideration was, did his actions warrant a penalty? According to the data held by the FIA they obviously felt that it did. Ferrari could always file an appeal immediately post race. The fact that they didn't means that they were on shaky ground. Nothing else matters."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Stewards should have spoken to Sainz, says Vasseur

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page