Carlos Sainz had pushed Oscar Piastri away in qualifying and, according to the commissioners, had driven a “potentially dangerous manoeuvre” – penalty also for Ferrari itself
Carlos Sainz has been warned by race stewards for a “potentially dangerous manoeuvre” in qualifying for the 2023 Zandvoort Formula One race and his Ferrari team fined €5,000.
The Spaniard had so obstructed McLaren’s Oscar Piastri coming out of the pit lane in Q1 that the latter had to swerve into the grass to avoid an accident.
Sainz had come out of the pits behind Valtteri Bottas, while Piastri was already on the track and had come up from behind. Sainz changed to the outside line shortly before turn 2, where Piastri was already, however, who then had to drive into the grass.
According to the race stewards, this was a “potentially dangerous manoeuvre” in which an accident was only avoided due to Piastri’s behaviour. This is a violation of Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 2 e) of the FIA International Sporting Code.
Sainz had stated on the radio that he had not seen Piastri, which he also confirmed to the commissioners. They record: “Sainz stated that he had seen Piastri briefly as he was coming out of the pits around turn 1 and that he thought Piastri was on a slow lap.”
“From then on he had not seen Piastri because of the relative angle of the cars. He also stated that he had tried to get onto the dry line as quickly as possible. “
So close to contact between Piastri and Sainz DutchGP F1 pic.twitter.com/zSBe0PeEOy
– Formula 1 (@F1) August 26, 2023
“While the race stewards can understand this explanation, they are of the opinion that Sainz moved quickly to the line without seeing a car that he knew was in that area, thereby creating a ‘potentially dangerous’ situation,” said the reasoning behind the caution.
For Sainz, it is the first warning of the season. Article 18.2 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations stipulates that a driver will incur a ten-position grid penalty if he has received five cautions in a season. Of these five, at least four must have been given for a driving offence, as was the case with Sainz at Zandvoort.
The incident does not have any further consequences for the Spaniard for the time being, but his Ferrari team has to pay a fine of 5,000 euros because the commissioners also found misconduct on the part of the team in the process.
The commissioners listened to the radio of Valtteri Bottas, who had pulled out of the pits directly in front of Sainz. Bottas had been warned at length by Alfa Romeo about Piastri. Ferrari had only warned Sainz by default not to cross the white line of the pit exit. He was only warned about Piastri when he was already next to him.
It was therefore decided that the team had contributed to the situation and a fine was imposed.
