Ferrari has set in motion the appeal process to overturn the penalty which dropped Carlos Sainz from fourth to twelfth at the Australian Grand Prix.
Sainz was given a five-second penalty for a collision with Fernando Alonso at the second restart. As this was given to him while the race was ending, with the field bunched together under a safety car, rather than in racing conditions, it had a much more severe punishment than it would have done otherwise.
Sainz was furious with the penalty and the fact he was unable to see the stewards to protest his case.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Williams driver Logan Sargeant both retired from the race after separate incidents at the same corner, but both avoided punishment. Gasly avoided a penalty after visiting the stewards with Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon, who said their collision had been a racing incident.
Ferrari has petitioned for a right to review, which is the first step under F1’s rules to lodge an appeal.
For there to be a proper appeal and review of Sainz’s penalty, Ferrari must first present information to the stewards that was not available at the time the verdict was made. If the FIA decides Ferrari’s evidence meets that criteria, then it will proceed with an appeal hearing.
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said: “We can expect at least to have an open discussion with them for the good of the sport to avoid to have this kind of decision where you have three cases on the same corner but not the same decision.
“The biggest frustration from Carlos, you heard it on the radio, was to not have the hearings because the case was very special. In this case it would have made sense as the race was over, it was not affecting the podium, to have hearings as Gasly and Ocon had.”
Were Ferrari to overturn Sainz’s penalty, it would shift everyone from fourth position down one place — with the Spaniard demoted, the order of the points-scoring drivers behind the podium places was Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda.
A timeline for the outcome is unclear, although Vasseur hopes the matter will be settled before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of April.