Frederic Vasseur Slams FIA’s “Double Standards” Over Carlos Sainz’s Penalty With Fernando Alonso Reminder

Let us begin with good news, away from our usual bashing of Ferrari. The brighter side of the Australian Grand Prix is that none of the scarlet cars blew up. While the good news ends, there is a major string of bad news that has scarred the Maranello outfit this Sunday. A lap 1 crash resulting in a second DNF for Charles Leclerc and a ‘racing incident’ involving Carlos Sainz meant the team, which is already a light year behind the top guns, scored zero points. And now a frustrated Frederic Vasseur has pointed out the hypocritical approach of the FIA.

Last race weekend, the stewards played a game of passing the parcel. They eventually awarded Fernando Alonso his 100th podium. The FIA retracted the penalty placed on him after Aston Martin showed them various instances of the same incident occurring which was not followed by a penalty. And while everyone hailed that, Ferrari TP has come out to say that FIA should have waited and discussed the penalty with them as they did with the shiny green team.

As quoted by Motorsport, Frederic Vasseur was asked if anything can be done about the Sainz penalty. To which a dejected Vasseur replied, “I don’t think the FIA ​​can review the penalty to Sainz. We’ll discuss it with the stewards and for me it’s a shame, because there are double standards. Just remember what happened last week with Alonso, with the penalty given and then removed. It would have been enough to wait 5 more minutes and then discuss it.”

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While for one, points were taken away by what the Maranello thinks was a double standard move, the other had to kiss goodbye to his podium dreams in the first lap of the race.

Frederic Vasseur speaks about the frustrations of Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc had two victories in the first three races last year. Fast forward to 2023, and he has DNFed in the very same races he won last year. His first-lap retirement in Albert Park crushed the Tifosi dreams of seeing the man hold the steering trophy this year.

When asked what he thinks happened to Leclerc, Fred Vasseur replied, “Charles is frustrated too. For him, it was a racing incident. He didn’t blame Stroll. They were side by side and there was contact. I honestly believe it was a very similar contact to Carlos and Alonso.”

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Do you think bad luck or Ferrari will ever see the light at the end of the tunnel?