Carlos Sainz Jnr said he was grateful for the FIA’s process which allowed his Williams team the opportunity to reverse a penalty call which went against him at Zandvoort.
The Dutch Grand Prix stewards decided last week to overturn their decision to penalise Sainz for a collision with Liam Lawson during the race. Although they could not cancel the 10-second time penalty he received during the race, they have rescinded the two penalty points they added to his licence.
Sainz said he was always convinced the decision was wrong. “I was pretty convinced after the race that it was obviously a mistake or a lack of judgement,” he told the official Formula 1 channel.
Williams used the ‘Right of Review’ process to challenge the decision. Although this has existed for many years, it had only previously led to a decision being revised on three previous occasions. Sainz was involved in one unsuccessful Right of Review hearing when he drove for Ferrari in 2023.
He said he is “very glad that the FIA has the resources and the possibility to change that [penalty].”
“I think it says a lot about the incident itself, but also about how far the FIA have come in terms of analysing those instincts and being able to rectify a decision. It’s not very common, it’s true, but it shouldn’t be because it’s not like we all want to change and challenge every possible decision that is made by the stewards.
“But I think in this case, it was so obvious to everyone that it had to be analysed and I’m glad the FIA had the mechanism to do it.”
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The FIA uses a rotating panel of different stewards across the 24 race weekends per season. Sainz, who became a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association earlier this year, said the governing body should consider using the same stewards at every event.
“Moving forward, the only thing that I advocate for is permanent stewards,” he said. “I think it’s something that would help in these kind of cases and keep working as a group to try and see how we can keep helping the FIA to improve in the judgement of these decisions.”
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