05/04/2023
NEWS STORY
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."