Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur slammed the FIA’s inconsistency after Carlos Sainz’s penalty at the Australian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard was given a five-second penalty for spinning Fernando Alonso at the chaotic restart following the second of three red flags during the race at Albert Park.
With the final lap then taking place behind the Safety Car, it meant Sainz, who initially crossed the line fourth, dropped outside of the points to 12th as a result.
Unsurprisingly, Carlos was livid about the “too severe” sanction, while even Alonso admitted it may have been “too harsh”.
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But, what irked Vasseur more was how the stewards made a near-instant decision to penalise Sainz, comparing it to drawn-out investigation into Alonso two weeks earlier in Jeddah.
“I think what is a shame for me is, that considering that it was not impacting the podium, at least, the stewards could have listened to them and had a look at the data. And I think this is a bit of a shame,” he said.
“They took 30 laps before to decide if Alonso’s car was touched into the box or not and today, it took five seconds [to penalise Sainz].
“We also changed the regulation two times in 10 minutes about the pit stop for Alonso and we could do the same today, or at least discuss it.”
The Ferrari chief then praised Sainz for his performance in Melbourne.
“Carlos had a very good recovery after the unlucky pit stop, just before the red flag,” he said via Channel 4, “and to get penalised like this at the end it’s very harsh.
“For sure you are emotional in this kind of situation because you are not far away from the podium, you are P4 coming from nowhere when we all the others get the pit stop for free. He did a mega good job.
“Now, I think that you can discuss hours about the penalty if it’s harsh or not. For sure that depending on your position, your team and so on the analysis will be different.”
