Ferrari Chief Confirms FIA Appeal Over Carlos Sainz's Australian GP Penalty: "For The Good Of The Sport"

Fred Vasseur confirms they have appealed the FIA's penalty against Carlos Sainz.

In the aftermath of the F1 Australian Grand Prix, the Ferrari team has taken a bold step by requesting a review of Carlos Sainz's controversial five-second penalty. The penalty was meted out to the driver after he was involved in a collision with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso on Lap 57 of the race.

Sainz, who ultimately finished in 12th place, was understandably fuming about the penalty, expressing his frustration over team radio and in post-race interviews. "It is the most unfair penalty I have seen in my life," he said. "I prefer to have a conversation with them and then come talk to you guys because right now I cannot do it."

But now, Ferrari has decided to take matters into their own hands by requesting a review of the stewards' decision. According to team principal Fred Vasseur, there are two key reasons why they believe the penalty was unfair.

The first reason is that the stewards did not investigate Logan Sargeant's crash into the back of Nyck de Vries into Turn 1. The second reason is that Pierre Gasly was not penalized for putting his teammate Esteban Ocon into the wall, despite it happening on the same lap.

In contrast, the Alpines were able to discuss their incident with the stewards after the race, but Sainz was given a penalty almost immediately, leaving him with no chance to plead his side of the case.

Speaking to the media, Vasseur confirmed that Ferrari has petitioned for a review of the case. He explained:

“We did the petition for the review of the case. We sent it today to the FIA.

“As we are discussing with the FIA I don’t want to discuss any details of this discussion. The only thing is that about Ocon-Gasly, also Sargeant-De Vries, Turn 1 - the reaction of the stewards wasn’t the same.

“The process is that first they will have a look at our petition to see if they can re-open the case and then we will have a second hearing about the decision itself.

“What we can expect is to have an open discussion with them but also for the good of the sport - to avoid having these kind of decisions when you have three cases on the same corner but not the same decision.”

The FIA's International Sporting Code allows competitors to request a review of a stewards' decision within 14 days if "a significant and relevant new element is discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned". Ferrari is hopeful that their petition will be granted, and that they will have a second hearing about the decision itself.