“Clearly the penalty is not deserved, it’s too severe”. That was Carlos Sainz on the radio after he was handed a 5-second time penalty at the Australian GP. It was only given after he caused a collision with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso after the red flag restart. Then why is Sainz defending himself? Because he faced severe consequences for an action that had no bearing on Alonso’s performance. 

Just after the Sainz had contact with Alonso, another two crashes led to the third red flag of the race. With only one lap remaining in the race, FIA decided to re-start the race “in the order of the previous start”. This meant Alonso could restart in third and secure a podium finish. On the other hand, Sainz, who was in fourth to the chequered flag, dropped down to 12th place and lost out on points because of the penalty. 

FIA’s inconsistent decision-making led to outrage again

While the Sainz-Alonso incident was happening in the front, the Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were engaged in a severe crash. Seconds later, Williams’ Logan Sargeant ran into the AlphaTauri driven by Nyck de Vries. But the FIA decided against taking action on them in any way, leading to outrage amongst the fans. Questioning the inconsistency of the stewards, Ferrari raised a petition to review the penalty. However, the FIA denied their appeal, claiming that no “relevant” material had been discovered.

Reacting to the FIA’s decision, Carlos Sainz released a statement on his Instagram stories, which said: “Very disappointed that the FIA did not grant us a right of review. Two weeks later, I still think the penalty is too disproportionate and I believe it should have at least been reviewed on the basis of the evidence and reasoning we have presented. We have to continue working together to improve certain things for the future. The consistency and decision-making process has been a hot topic for many seasons now and we need to be clearer for the sake of our sport.”

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Indeed, the FIA’s decision-making has been a “hot topic”. Because it is not the first time their decisions led to outrage and total confusion. So Ferrari has decided to do something about it.

Scuderia Ferrari demands consistency in the sport

Looking at the lengthy volume of F1 rules, one would think it covers every circumstance, but it doesn’t. In fact, the book leads to so many interpretations that even the FIA frequently lacked an acceptable justification for its decisions. The recent Australian GP is just another example of FIA’s many controversial decisions – the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix being the most notable one. However, if this continues, it’ll only damage the reputation of the sport.

But the Maranello team wants to prevent that. Ferrari issued a statement in response to the FIA’s decision, outlining their plans to strengthen the sport’s regulation. The statement said, “We are now looking forward to entering broader discussions with the FIA, F1, and all the Teams, with the aim of further improving the policing of our sport.”

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Hopefully, this action will safeguard the athletic integrity of F1 and prevent any further damage to its name.