Williams team principal James Vowles says Oliver Bearman should not have been penalised for the collision with his driver Carlos Sainz Jnr at the last round.
The stewards held Bearman responsible after the pair tangled at Monza’s Roggia chicane. The decision potentially has serious consequences for Bearman, as he received two penalty points which puts him on a total of 10, two away from an automatic ban.
The incident occured as Sainz passed Bearman on the outside heading into the corner. The stewards ruled that as Sainz was ahead, he had the right to the racing line in the corner, and Bearman was to blame for the collision.
Although the collision ended Sainz’s chance of finishing in the points, Vowles said the stewards should not have penalised Bearman for the clash and instead ruled it a racing incident.
“My feeling – I’ve spoken to Carlos about it – is that Bearman accident, again, was a racing incident,” he told Sky. “It’s difficult: yes, there was a gap that wasn’t there, but also there wasn’t much space to play with.”
Last week Williams successfully challenged a penalty Sainz received during the Dutch Grand Prix where the stewards followed similar reasoning. They originally penalised Sainz for a collision with Liam Lawson, ruling he was not far enough alongside to be entitled to be left space, but changed their decision and deemed it a racing incident after a review.
Vowles said he was grateful the stewards revised their decision almost two weeks after the race took place. “Being blunt, the stewards get a hard time, but they really do not have an easy job, in my opinion,” he said.
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“We are adjudicating fine margins that happen live and we focus on the ones that potentially weren’t adjudicated correctly. I’m appreciative of their time. They went through the review properly and we actually properly spoke through the case.”
However he does not want to see more penalties being revised outside of events. “It should be self-contained within the weekend. That has to be the goal that we get towards.
“So, part of this is a learning experience. It’s not that anyone just throws this away now, we [should] actually put this back in the bag of: ‘how do we make this better for everyone during the course of the weekend?’”
He also hopes the decision to overturn Sainz’s penalty will establish a useful precedent for the future.
“The reason why we did this wasn’t so much about the two [penalty] points. It’s more establishing how do we go racing in the future? Because it’s murky and unclear to us at the moment.
“This is only going to get closer. You get 20 cars within eight tenths [of a second], I guarantee you we’re going to bang wheels a few times. My main thing that came out of it is it was actually a very sensible conversation that I think will lead to better conversations in the future.”
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