Carlos Sainz compiling evidence for Dutch GP penalty review after stewards meeting

Williams' Carlos Sainz is compiling evidence to seek a review of his 10-second Dutch GP penalty

Williams Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz strongly feels that his 10-second Dutch Grand Prix penalty should be reviewed. After meeting with the stewards following the race at Zandvoort, the 31-year-old is putting together evidence in an attempt to have the penalty revoked.

The Spanish driver was handed a 10-second penalty and two penalty points after contact with Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson. As Sainz went for the outside line at Turn 1 at Zandvoort after a safety car restart, Lawson had contact with the right side of Sainz's Williams, hampering both of their races.

The FIA explained at the time that "Car 55 [Sainz] was attempting to overtake Car 30 [Lawson] on the outside of Turn 1. The front axle of Car 55 was not ahead of the front axle of Car 30 at the apex of Turn 1. Car 55 attempted to stay on the outside of Car 30 and a collision occurred. We considered that Car 30 had the right to the corner and therefore Car 55 was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision. As is standard for a collision of this nature and as prescribed under the guidelines, we imposed a 10 second time penalty on Car 55."

Sainz confirmed during the Italian Grand Prix press conference that he had been able to speak with the stewards after the race at Zandvoort and that he was trying to collate enough evidence to have the penalty revoked.

"Yeah, I did get the chance to go and speak to them after the race. I had the opportunity to go and sit with them for 15 minutes to analyse the incident.

"And it was very clear to me that as soon as they got all the evidence right, and they look 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 a 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, which can happen as long as you have the capacity to revisit it. And 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.

Alex Albon, Williams, Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Erik Junius

"I do believe they had a very difficult Sunday looking back at it. They had a very busy afternoon, and if it was overwhelming because of the amount of stuff that happened in the race, on the race or not, but I still definitely firmly believe what I thought after the race, obviously now in a much cooler-headed state, but I still firmly believe what happened was and the penalty was not acceptable, and I made it very clear."

When asked how he felt about the current dynamics and processes between the drivers and the FIA, Sainz added: "It's very tough. I keep, especially after the race, trying to do my best to obviously control my emotions and everything, but there is moments where it's very difficult to control them, and it's very difficult to understand certain things. I've always said it, and I will always support the idea that in F1 we should have fixed stewards.

"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, but 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.

"I think they have an incredibly difficult job, and sometimes they also have restricted time. I think what happened in my individual case in Zandvoort was a consequence of also trying to rush a decision without looking deep enough into 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 rulebook, you could potentially understand why they would want to penalise me. The moment you analyse the onboard footage and you go into detail of what happened, you can clearly see why I should have never got a penalty, but the opposite thing can be applied for Lewis's incident. It's like maybe in 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, let's say, and he had half an hour during the race to pay a penalty for his infringement.

"But that shows how difficult the process is, how difficult everything is to handle, and why there's always improvements to be made and always needs to be a collaboration between the 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."