F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Even drivers are confused by rules - Sainz

Carlos Sainz says even F1 drivers don't understand the rules in the sport at present, which are making things confusing for fans.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting was present in the Thursday FIA Press Conference at Interlagos to explain some of the decisions made during the Mexican Grand Prix. Ferrari appealed Sebastian Vettel's penalty for moving under braking against Daniel Ricciardo in the same race, but eventually decided to take it no further after an initial hearing into the incident.

With Bernie Ecclestone keen to see the regulations of the sport simplified - with many team bosses agreeing the sport is over regulated - Sainz says the drivers are not 100% clear on what they are and are not allowed to do.

“It's not very easy to understand by myself or the other drivers, especially for the ones who counts: the fans, the viewers, my uncles, my parents, my grandfathers,” Sainz said. “They look at the race and they have no clue what is going on. No clue.

“I was at a family dinner last Sunday and they don't understand F1 now. For me it's such a shame that I cannot explain to them. Not even myself, why they put that penalty to one or another so, it's difficult. Difficult situation that I don't enjoy it at the moment.”

And Sainz says drivers are spending too long discussing such incidents during driver briefings at each race as they try and understand what is legal.

“I've been involved in situations but those two or three bad things that happen to you, they really piss you off. It's difficult to accept. There's definitely too much talking going on out of the track about penalties, no penalties, even during the race talking about penalties, expecting a penalty or not. Situations that shouldn't happen.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.