Williams has lodged a right of review request with the FIA over the penalty Carlos Sainz picked up in Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix for his collision with Liam Lawson.
The Spaniard remains unhappy about being given a 10-second sanction for being to blame for a clash with the Racing Bulls driver as he tried to go around the outside at Turn 1 following a safety car restart.
While F1’s driver guidelines are clear that Sainz had no entitlement to be left room because he had not got his front axle alongside Lawson’s at the apex, he remains baffled about why his actions were deemed worthy enough to be punished.
Following a 15-minute discussion that Sainz had with the Dutch GP stewards at Zandvoort on Sunday night to run through events and get a better understanding of why they acted the way they did, he says he is even more convinced that they made a mistake.
And he explained how Williams was readying a case to try to challenge the penalty on principle – even though the 10-second loss cannot be given back to him as Sainz served it in the pits.
Speaking about his discussions with the stewards, Sainz said: “As soon as they caught all the evidence, and they looked at the places that they would have needed to look at to take the right decision, it was very clear to me that I think they realised that probably the decision taken wasn't the best one.
“Now we are trying to see if we can come up with enough evidence and enough stuff to realise if we can change the outcome of the penalty, because I still firmly believe it was a very poor penalty that I received and a bad judgment.
“If there's been a misunderstanding or a lack of evidence or a lack of analysis, then there is still time to reanalyse it, to reopen it and change it.”
Under the terms of the FIA’s International Sporting Code, competitors have 96 hours from the end of the competition to file any petition for a right of review.
Williams officially lodged its request on late afternoon on Thursday, within the allotted time period.
"We can confirm we have submitted a right of review to the FIA relating to Carlos’ penalty in Zandvoort," a statement from Williams read.
"It is important for us to understand how to go racing in future, and we are hopeful of a positive outcome.
To secure a right of review hearing with the stewards, the team will also need to put forward “a significant and relevant new element” that was unavailable at the time the decision was made.
A rushed decision?
Sainz fully understands that the chaotic Dutch GP probably contributed to the stewards being under pressure on the day, but feels that there are elements that leave him uneasy.
“I think they have an incredibly difficult job and sometimes they also have restricted time,” he said.
“I think what happened in my individual case in Zandvoort was a consequence of also trying to rush a decision without looking deep enough in the analysis of what happened in the incident.
“Once you look at it in detail, I mean if you just apply the rule that there is in the rule book, you could potentially understand why they would want to penalise me.
“But the moment you analyse the onboard footage, and you go into the detail of what happened, you can clearly see why I should have never got a penalty.”
While Sainz did not elaborate on the specific elements at play, The Race understands that one of the key factors was the way that Lawson had to correct a slide midway through the corner – so was put onto a different trajectory that moved him towards the Williams car.
It is not clear if the FIA stewards were aware of this at the time, as some of the onboards from drivers are not available until they have been downloaded post-race.
Permanent stewards
Sainz believes that the way some of the decisions played out at Zandvoort – which included Lewis Hamilton’s five-place grid drop for the Italian GP for ignoring double waved yellows on the pre-race reconnaissance laps – shows why he thinks F1 needs a different stewards' system.
“I've always said it and I will always support the idea that in F1 we should have fixed stewards and people,” he said.
“If the regulations are already incredibly complex, it would be very useful to have always the same people judging them and applying them, because then you know more or less what you're dealing with.
“My belief is that's the way forward. I'm not speaking in the name of the GPDA or anyone here. That's my individual belief.”
Speaking about Hamilton’s penalty, Sainz felt that the Ferrari suffered from the opposite problem to him – in that the decision was taken so late that he needlessly carried a penalty into the Monza weekend.
“It's like maybe Lewis’s incident, the decision process took too long and he's now having to suffer a penalty in Monza when he did nothing wrong in Monza,” he said.
“And he had half an hour during the race to pay a penalty for his infringement.
“That shows how difficult the process is, how difficult everything is to handle and why there's always improvements to be made.
“There always needs to be a collaboration between drivers, FIA, GPDA and FIA to try and find better solutions because again, Zandvoort exposed why we are not at the right level yet for such a difficult but incredible sport to watch.”
