Carlos Sainz labeled the five-second penalty he was slapped with at the end of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix the biggest disgrace he has seen in Formula 1 for years.
Carlos Sainz drove into compatriot Fernando Alonso at the second restart of the race in Melbourne, after a Red Flag caused by Kevin Magnussen crashing his Haas, and for that he was given a five-second time penalty that dropped him out of the points.
The Spaniard’s reaction was visible on the TV feed while in his Ferrari getting ready for the final restart as the team informed him of the penalty.
Sainz was struggling for words after the race when asked about his penalty, and told Sky Sports F1: “I prefer not to talk right now.
“Honestly, I am too disappointed and I am going to say bad things,” he added trying to judge his words.
“It is the most unfair penalty I have seen in my life. I prefer to have a conversation with them and then come talk to you guys because right now I cannot do it,” he said.
A disgrace
However, the Ferrari driver threw caution to the wind later on, speaking to ViaPlay, slamming the decision to penalize him; he said: “It is the biggest disgrace I’ve seen in the sport for many years.”
Despite being on the receiving end of Sainz’s move, Alonso felt the plight of his countryman, admitting the penalty was harsh.
“The penalty is too harsh because on lap one it’s always difficult to judge the grip level – we don’t go intentionally into another car because we know we risk our own car and our final position,” the double F1 Champion said.
“Sometimes you end up in places where you wish you were not there but that’s just part of racing. I didn’t see the replay properly, but for me it’s too harsh,” he insisted.
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur echoed the sentiments of his driver, feeling the stewards would have been better off speaking to Sainz before handing him the penalty.
The Frenchman said: “We took the penalty that, in this kind of situation, you can discuss for hours about who is responsible and from my point of view it was like an incident on lap one and exactly the same as the first start but we can discuss it for a while until we agree on something.
“But my frustration is more on making a decision before the end, before we can listen to them, when we know we have just one lap behind the safety car to do, it would’ve made sense to wait for the end of the race and discuss with them exactly what they saw.
A decision taken in five seconds
“It was not changing the podium at all and it was not a drama. Last weekend it took a while to make a decision, today with Carlos it was quick with his five seconds,” Vasseur added, referring to the FIA’s fiasco with Alonso’s grid box penalty in Jeddah.
Asked about Sainz’s emotions pouring over the team radio; Vasseur said: “You have to understand the situation too that he had to do an extra pitstop 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.
“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,” he concluded.
What makes Sainz’s penalty seem more unfair, is the fact that the stewards decided against dishing out any penalties to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who at the same time crashed with his teammate Esteban Ocon wiping out both pink cars, meaning the French squad left Melbourne pointless.