The 2023 Australian GP was a race of chaos. While the race continued under decent form in the middle, the opening laps and closing laps were filled with drama, collisions, and multiple red flag periods. Barring the very last red flag period, every other one resulted in a standing start after the track was cleared.
With two laps to go, the last standing start of the day got underway with Max Verstappen leading from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Carlos Sainz was down in fourth place, and caught out with the cold tyres and brakes the Spaniard couldn’t brake in time for turn one, colliding with fellow countryman Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.
This spun the Aston Martin right around and to the back of the pack, robbing him of the podium place. However, in the turns to follow, another big shunt between Pierre Gasly & Esteban Ocon meant that the race had to be stopped yet again, even before any car could complete even one sector on the lap, let alone the entire lap.
With less than a sector completed, it meant that the race would be resumed in the same order as the last restart, and not in the order when the red flag period began; meaning Fernando Alonso was reinstated back to third, with Carlos Sainz fourth. However, despite Alonso getting his place back, FIA still penalised Carlos Sainz for causing a collision. The race restarted for one last lap but only behind the safety car, since there were no laps left to race, and with the pack close together due to the safety car the 5-second time penalty dropped Carlos Sainz from fourth all the way down to twelfth and out of points.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur confirmed that the Italian outfit would exercise their right to review for the penalty in the coming days. After a hearing that took place on Tuesday morning, the FIA stated, "There is no significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned. The Petition is therefore dismissed." “We considered the fact that this collision took place at the first corner on the first lap of the restart, when, by convention, the Stewards would typically take a more lenient view of incidents. However, we decided that notwithstanding that it was the equivalent of a first lap incident, we considered that there was sufficient gap for SAI to take steps to avoid the collision and failed to do so. We therefore imposed a 5-second time penalty.”
Scuderia Ferrari responded to FIA’s statement via a tweet, voicing their disappointment. The team also stated that it was willing to work with FIA, F1, and all the other teams to improve the policing in the sport. However, this decision by the FIA means that Ferrari are left with just 26 points after 3 Grands Prix, fourth in the constructor’s championship, and out of the fight for the title.
