This morning Scuderia Ferrari released a statement regarding the 5 second penalty Carlos Sainz received at the Australian Grand Prix. The penalty was given for contact made with Fernando Alonso during the final standing restart of the race. Ferrari appeal the penalty but the FIA stewards have dismissed their appeal and upheld the penalty. The statement from Ferrari reads as follows:
“We acknowledge the FIA decision not to grant us a right of review in relation to the penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. We are naturally disappointed, and felt that we had provided sufficient significant new elements for the FIA to re-examine the decision especially in the context of the particular conditions and multiple incidents that occurred during the final restart. We are however respectful of the process and of the FIA decision. We are now looking forward to entering broader discussions with the FIA, F1 and all the Teams, with the aim of further improving the policing of our sport, in order to ensure the highest level of fairness and consistency that our sport deserves.”
The FIA stated the following after their verdict, “There is no significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned. The Petition is therefore dismissed. We considered the fact that this collision took place at the first corner on the first lap of the restart, when, by convention, the Stewards would typically take a more lenient view of incidents. However, we decided that notwithstanding that it was the equivalent of a first lap incident, we considered that there was sufficient gap for SAI to take steps to avoid the collision and failed to do so. We therefore imposed a 5-second time penalty.”
Ferrari asked the stewards to take into account telemetry data from Sainz’s car, plus witness statements given by Sainz and Alonso. The FIA did not reconsider the Scuderia’s appeal based on this information. They deemed it “unnecessary for us to hear from SAI or hear from any other driver to decide that he was wholly to blame for the collision.”
The FIA decided that the supplied data “corroborated” their decision. The written statements from Sainz and Alonso were considered “not new significant and relevant elements to decide about the incident”.
Ferrari remain fourth in the championship standings with 26 points, behind third-placed Mercedes with 56 points.