'It's ridiculous that race officials gave Sainz a penalty'

F1 News

Windsor criticises race management
3 April 2023 at 13:04
Last update 3 April 2023 at 15:01
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  • GPblog.com

Peter Windsor has reacted with amazement to the penalty Carlos Sainz received after the second restart. Carlos Sainz tapped Fernando Alonso off the track at the first corner. However, Windsor thinks it was unjust that a penalty was given for this.

'Penalty for Sainz is ridiculous'

The second restart was full of chaos. Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries hit each other, then ended up in the gravel pit. Both Alpine drivers also hit each other, which also resulted in the end of their race.

After a third red flag, the stewards decided to continue behind the safety car for the second restart. This allowed Fernando Alonso to continue in third again, so he was not disadvantaged after his crash. However, his compatriot Carlos Sainz did receive a penalty from race control. Total nonsense, says Peter Windsor in his race analysis: "They rushed into it aswell because there's now an obsession after what happened in Saudi Arabia to get the penalty out and not discuss it after the race, so they rushed into it, and by giving him a five second penalty, in what was then going to be just one parade lap behind the safety car, they were effectively saying:' Well you're last now', which is absolutely ridiculous."

Windsor thinks the race organisers had a better option: "Why didn't they say: 'two place penalty for next race' or 'three place penalty for next race.' Why did they put him into the back of the field because of that?"