Sainz, Ferrari chews bitter
With the review request rejected for the final episode in Melbourne, Ferrari had to accept a political defeat and the failure to return the position and the championship points to Carlos Sainz. The FIA has decided to confirm the five-second penalty inflicted on the Spaniard for contact with Fernando Alonso in the final stages of the Australian Grand Prix, which in fact took the Ferrari driver out of the points zone because the intervention of the Safety Car in final lap prevented him from stretching his rivals.
At the regulation level, little can be said to the race stewards, except that they evaluated two almost identical situations differently (why Sainz penalized but Logan Sargeant not?). And if it is true that a sanction should be imposed following the regulation regardless of how much it may impact on the result of the penalized person, perhaps a middle ground could be found. For the future, let’s be clear: in Melbourne, by regulation, he either let himself go (pretending not to see that Sainz had crashed into Alonso) or he gave himself a reprimand or five seconds.
Chandhok’s opinion
So, for the future, could there be alternative solutions for similar cases? According to Karun Chandhok, Yes. The former F1 driver, now an analyst for the British of Sky Sports UKa fairer sanction would be a downgrade in the grid for the next race: “I think if the races finish behind the safety car, the stewards should consider a three-place grid penalty in the following race instead of adding five seconds. It would be a more proportionate sanction“.
I do think that if races finish behind the safety car, the stewards should consider a 3 place grid drop at the following race instead of the 5 seconds being added.
Would be a more proportionate penalty… https://t.co/qzFo65BuNn
— Karun Chandhok (@karunchandhok) April 19, 2023
Chandhok and Ferrari
The former Indian driver has already been linked to Ferrari for similar episodes. How can we forget the Chandhok dossier, one of the evidence brought by Ferrari to the attention of the Commissioners of the Canadian Grand Prix for the request for review of the case involving Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. In recent days Chandhok joked on Twitter with the Scuderia di Maranello asking for a ride on the Ferrari 641 if he wanted to use his analysis once again to support Sainz’s innocence.
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