In these days post GP everything has been read on the net about the penalty imposed on Carlos Sainz. You go from "reduction of the penalty to 2 or 3 seconds" to "cancellation of the penalty". And among the questions one emerges: “why the penalty if lap 57 doesn't count thanks to the old grid?“. Let's go into detail to see why the FIA acted in this way.
Lap 55: Why the grill like that
First of all, let's start by talking about the grid of lap 55, in order to dispel any doubts or similar in this sense. When Kevin Magnussen he found himself without a tire after contact with the barriers on lap 54, the Safety Car came on to compact the group. Following this though, the FIA decided there was too much debris on the track and after that all passed through one of the survey points to confirm the order, he displayed the red flag. In this way, the FIA was certain of the order of the drivers, which was as follows:
- M. Verstappen
- L. Hamilton
- F. Alonso
- C.Sainz
- P. Gasly
- L. Stroll
- S. Perez
- L.Norris
- N. Hulkenberg
- E. Ocon
- O. Plates
- Zhou G.
- Tsunoda Y.
- V. Bottas
- L. Sergeant
- N. de Vries
Lap 57: chaos on the track
With the red flag on lap 55, all the cars returned to the pits, crossing the finish line and starting lap 56. As logical, and as clearly written in the FIA regulations, the lap behind the Safety Car for the restart is still one race lap (just as one lap is deducted from the race in the event of an extra formation lap at the start). As the lights went out, lap 57 then began, in what had clearly become a two-lap race for victory. The pilots therefore demonstrated great aggressiveness, which however led to multiple accidents and problems. Pérez went wide in turn 1, rejoining at turn two and narrowly avoiding another car. The two Alpines instead touched each other, ending up in the wall. Similarly, de Vries suffered a pile-up from Sargeant (which went unpunished).
Finally, last but not least, the contact Sainz-Alonso. With all the debris and problems on the track, race direction didn't let the Safety Car in, but found themselves forced to call the red flag right away. In doing so, however, Niels Wittich could not have a precise picture of the positions (as the GPS does not help, given the problem in Jeddah with Stroll, given by the GPS itself on the track). Therefore, also following the directives of the regulation, Wittich returned to the last lap in which everyone's positions were clear, i.e. lap 55 which gave the formation of the grid for the restart.
[…] In any case, the order [of the grid, ed] will be taken from the last point where it was possible to determine the position of all the cars. All those cars will be allowed to rejoin the sprint or the race.
Extract from article 57.3 of the sporting regulations of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship
But then, why the penalty to Sainz?
So if the grid corresponds to lap 55, is it as if lap 57 hadn't been run? Yes, but no. To explain it better, let's take an example made during our Monday live broadcast on Twitch (which we invite you to follow) by Gianni Nardone.
Let's say a soccer player scores a goal and, in celebration, takes off his shirt. The consequent warning remains even if the goal is disallowed for any reason, because the card was not related to the goal as a sporting action, but was a separate instance.
Indeed, in Sainz's case, even if the grid did not keep the Ferrari driver in third place, the infringement was still found to be present (ie the contact). Not only that, but the stewards have placed the entire blame on Sainz, to the point of justifying a 5-second penalty even in a restart context, where souls are therefore more tense. Therefore, despite the fact that the grid has placed the order as it was initially, the penalty for the mistake made had to remain, even considering the possible mitigating factors.
Then by chance there were no further laps available and a parade was made (there a big mistake by the FIA can be contested) with all the drivers nearby, causing Sainz to slip into twelfth position. The FIA could easily have decided not to restart the last lap with the message "Race will not resume" and still apply the penalty.
In short, overall, the FIA has done almost everything right, and it's a positive thing: the regulation is applied to the letter (even in the case of lap 58 with the parade, where perhaps more common sense would have been needed) and it doesn't seem, until now, that there are cases of double standards.
