Ferrari has confirmed that it will appeal Carlos Sainz’s penalty from the Australian Grand Prix as it hopes to have his fourth-place finish reinstated.
Sainz was shuffled outside of the top 10 after being handed a five-second time penalty for colliding with Fernando Alonso at a red flag restart.
Contact was made between the duo on the exit of the first turn, with Alonso dropping to the rear of the field from third place.
Race Control called another red flag due to various other incidents in the opening corners and at the following restart, which saw the race end behind the Safety Car, the order from the previous start was taken, minus the retired parties.
But Sainz was still issued with a time penalty and with the group bunched up behind the Safety Car across the line, he fell down the order outside the points.
Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur has confirmed that the Maranello-based squad has requested a right to review, the first step in an appeal of a penalty.
“We can expect at least to have an open discussion with them for the good of the sport to avoid to have this kind of decision where you have three cases on the same corner but not the same decision,” Vasseur said.
“The biggest frustration from Carlos, you heard it on the radio, was to not have the hearings because the case was very special.
“In this case it would have made sense as the race was over, it was not affecting the podium, to have hearings as Gasly and Ocon had.
For a full appeal process to be heard, Ferrari must present information that was not available to the Stewards at the time of handing out the punishment.
Should the FIA be satisfied with the presented evidence, a hearing can then be arranged.
Sainz was outraged after the grand prix and labelled the punishment as the most unfair penalty that he’s ever seen.
Vasseur, too, questioned the consistency of the FIA after the long decision to issue Alonso with a penalty in Jeddah (which was eventually overturned) compared to the rapid nature of penalising Sainz.
“Carlos was devastated on Sunday and I can perfectly understand sometimes after the race with the pressure, the emotion and so, there are extremes in terms of reaction,” Vasseur added.
“But I think he was devastated on Sunday and we did a petition for the review of the case, we will send it to the FIA.
It was another severe blow to Ferrari, who lost Charles Leclerc in the order on the opening lap after he came together with Lance Stroll.
