FIA dismisses Ferrari right of review request of Sainz penalty

The FIA has dismissed Ferrari's request for a right of review of Carlos Sainz's penalty in the Australian Grand Prix after deeming that there was no new relevant evidence presented by the Scuderia.

Sainz was handed a five-second by the stewards for tagging Fernando Alonso into a spin on the exit of Turn 1 just after the second restart in Melbourne, a sanction that dropped the Spaniard from fourth to twelfth in the race's final standings.

In the wake of the penalty, which both team and driver considered as unfair, Ferrari requested a right of review, a process that required the Italian outfit to submit new evidence in favor of absolving Sainz.

In an online hearing conducted on Tuesday morning, Ferrari submitted telemetry data related to the incident and to Sainz's contact with Alonso.

But the stewards deemed that no new elements were brought to the fore by Ferrari, leaving the FIA with no other option but to dismiss the team's petition.

"The Stewards have access to a considerable amount of telemetry data," the FIA said in a statement. "We were also in a position to access such data.

"The telemetry data presented in the Petition is at best ambiguous and in our view did not exculpate Sainz but in fact corroborated our decision that he was wholly to blame for the collision.

"He says he braked harder but could not stop the car because of cold tyres. He states further that a slow formation lap contributed to the cold tyres.

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"There are two short points:

"First, even if that is true, the presentation of telemetry showing his braking point is not a significant new element for the purposes of Art.14.

"Second, the conditions of the track and the tyres was something that every competitor needed to take into account and adapt to.

"In trying to brake late while racing GAS, he adopted the risk that he, as a driver, would lose control of his car. In this case, that risk materialised, with the consequence of a collision that ensued, for which a penalty follows."

As for the stewards' decision not to hear from Sainz after the race, the FIA said: "We deemed it unnecessary for us to hear from Sainz or hear from any other driver to decide that he was wholly to blame for the collision.

"A decision that we, and other Stewards panels, routinely take and are encouraged to take, when the cause of the collision is clear and there is a need for time penalties to be issued as quickly as possible."

Ferrari published the following statement in reaction to the FIA's decision:

"We acknowledge the FIA decision not to grant us a right of review in relation to the penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix," it said in a statement.

"We are naturally disappointed and felt that we had provided sufficient new elements for the FIA to re-examine the decision, especially in the context of the particular conditions and multiple incidents that occurred during the final restart.

"We are however respectful of the process and of the FIA decision.

"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 our sport, in order to ensure the highest level of fairness and consistency that our sport deserves."

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