Carlos Sainz Jnr strongly disagrees with the five-place grid penalty he carries into this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The Williams driver received the penalty for knocking Andrea Kimi Antonelli into a spin during last weekend’s race in Austin.
The stewards ruled Sainz was “predominantly” to blame for the collision. He argued a five-place drop was too harsh for an incident he only had a share of the responsibility for.
“The decision that the stewards made of giving me a five-place grid penalty for here after what happened there, I found it completely disproportionate to what the incident itself was and exposes a bit the weaknesses in the rules that we have,” he said. “But it is what it is, I have to take it.
“I obviously assume my responsibility for – or my share of responsibility for the incident. I wish we could have both continued the race, but I think honestly after looking at the data and all the onboards that we looked at, the fact that they still decided to give me [a] five-place [penalty] for here is difficult to understand, difficult to accept, but whatever, I’ll take it.”
However Antonelli indicated he agreed with Sainz’s penalty. “I have a different view on the crash, Carlos has his view but it’s what it is and now we move on,” he said. “It was a shame because we were both in a decent position and obviously with the contact we basically ended both of our races.”
This is the second time this year Sainz has had to serve a grid drop. He received a three-place penalty at the Japanese Grand Prix for impeding Lewis Hamilton during qualifying.
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Sainz said he intends to raise the matter at the penultimate round of the season in Qatar when the drivers will meet to discuss F1’s racing guidelines.
“I think it’s not something to discuss in the drivers’ briefing [in Mexico], because it’s not like you’re going to change anything. I think it’s something maybe to discuss more in Qatar, where we’re having a conversation about rules in general – about driving guidelines, I think they call them now.
“[This] is something I’ve been quite vocal about. A guideline is not a rule. A guideline can help you to see an accident or try and evaluate an accident, but it’s a guideline – it’s not a rule.
“Sometimes these guidelines are being applied for any kind of situation on track, which I find a bit interesting and not exactly the way I would judge an accident if I was a steward.”
Penalty box
Did the stewards issue the correct penalty? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Sainz’s penalty for his collision with Antonelli was:
No opinion (0%)
Far too lenient (0%)
Slightly too lenient (3%)
Correct (68%)
Slightly too harsh (14%)
Far too harsh (16%)
Total Voters: 37
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