(Milan) Ferrari appealed the 5-second penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz at the Australian GP on Sunday, which dropped the Spaniard from 4e at the 12e up, out of the dots.
Sainz “was desperate on Sunday”, testified the boss of the Italian team Frédéric Vasseur, “we filed a request for review of the decision. We sent it to the FIA”.
This incident was catastrophic for Ferrari, which had already lost Charles Leclerc to an accident on the first lap of the race.
Sainz was penalized for crushing Fernando Alonso’s Aston-Martin and sending the former world champion spinning. Alonso however finished third in the race.
Ferrari believes Sainz was treated more harshly than Pierre Gasly, not punished when he snagged his teammate at Alpine Esteban Ocon late in the race. Both Alpines had to retire.
“We hope to at least have an open discussion with them (the FIA authorities), Vasseur said. It’s also for the good of the sport, to avoid having this type of decision where you have three incidents on the same turn and not the same decision […] We felt like the incident between Gasly and Ocon was handled a little differently.”