(Milan) Ferrari appealed the 5-second penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz at the Australian GP on Sunday, which dropped the Spaniard from 4th to 12th, out of the points.
Sainz “was desperate on Sunday,” testified Italian team boss 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 reckons Sainz was treated harder than Pierre Gasly, not penalized as he snagged Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon late in the race. Both Alpines had to retire.
“We hope to at least have an open discussion with them (FIA authorities), Vasseur said. It’s also for the good of this sport, to avoid having this type of decision where you have three incidents on the same corner and not the same decision […] We had the impression that the incident between Gasly and Ocon was treated a little differently.”
