Ferrari wants to review Sainz's penalty for the Australian Grand Prix
Carlos Sainz was given a five-second penalty for colliding with Fernando Alonso on a frantic restart at the Australian Grand Prix. During the restart after the second red flag there was a series of collisions and driver errors that eventually led to a third red flag.
The Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, the only one left on the track, suffered the most in this situation. The Spaniard was fined 5 seconds by the race management while marshals were removing car wreckage from the track. Then it was announced that the drivers would not have even one lap to finish the race. The safety car was leaving the track, the drivers drove 10-20 meters in "fighting" mode and crossed the finish line. Of course, for Carlos it meant a finish out of points, although he started third and claimed the podium. With only 12 cars left on the track after the big crash, the Spaniard was doomed to be the last of the remainder.
According to Carlos himself, this penalty was unfair to him, and he should have had a chance to explain the incident to the stewards from his point of view. On the other hand, the accident of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon was investigated after the race, resulting no further investigation, while Logan Sargeant and Nick de Vries, who were stuck in gravel, were not even held accountable.
Only a week later it became known that Ferrari still filed a protest to review the results and directly the penalty.
"The process is that first they will have a look on our petition to see if they can re-open the case. Then we'll have a second hearing a bit later, with the same stewards or the stewards of the next meeting, about the decision itself." - said Vasseur.
Another couple of days later it became known the arguments with which Ferrari will go to explain to the stewards. Their main argument will be the data of telemetry from the car of Carlos shortly before and at the time of the collision with Alonso. According to these data Sainz started to brake strongly in advance, even before Alonso, and was not going to enter the turn on late braking. Alonso, on the other hand, braked late and entered the corner, unnaturally cutting the corner. Because of this he moved to the side of Carlos, despite the fact that the left side was a lot of space. The Italian team believes that such a trajectory of the Alpine pilot led to the collision with Carlos, and the fact that Gasly had to cut on the gravel, to avoid a collision. Such arguments raise some doubts, but, the stewards accepted Ferrari's application for consideration.
Despite rumors that the team has abandoned the idea, Ferrari will still exercise the right to reconsider. On April 18 the FIA will hear the arguments of the Italian team, which will try to challenge the penalty issued to Carlos during the third red flags.