The FIA made them wait a long time Carlos Sainz before issuing his final verdict on the incident before Oscar Piastri at turn 17. Shortly after 2:30 a.m., the man from Madrid received the sanction from the stewards, who penalized him with five seconds and one point on his license. In this way, the Ferrari driver falls to fifth position in the Miami GP, behind Sergio Prezalthough 17 cents ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
In their letter, the commissioners consider Sainz “guilty of the collision.” “In the overtaking attempt, car 55 braked late, did not reach the apex and lost its rear end, with the resulting collision. Although car 81 was trying to turn to counteract the overtaking attempt, it left enough space,” they describe in their text. . “Given the circumstances we consider that car 55 is the main culprit for the collision.”
Document 84, signed by the commissioners Nish Shetty, Andrew Mallalieu, Vitantonio Liuzzi y Dennis Dean, it took until well into the peninsular dawn. The FIA referees decided to study the case with the necessary rigor. The 10 seconds to Stroll for hindering Alex Albon and pushing him out of bounds in Turn 1 had already been scored with alacrity. In the same way, the controversial case of Kevin Magnussenpunished with a drive trough (20 seconds) for a prohibited maneuver during the period of safety car.
“I don’t think about nationalities”
Sainz, in any case, felt stupefied by what he had experienced in Miami. In his opinion, the double standard was more than evident. “I was surprised that Piastri has done something very similar to what Magnussen did yesterday, who had so many penalties. And today none have fallen,” he said.
When asked about Friday’s meeting between Fernando Alonso y Mohammed ben Sulayem, president of the FIA, and the harsh words of the Asturian, Sainz was much more restrained. “I don’t think about nationalities, but about consistency and inconsistency.” Minutes later, the man from Madrid himself would admit to having changed his driving style to adapt to the new line of the referees.
“They have let us fight more than normal, without giving us as much space, I don’t know exactly why. But I have taken note and I have done exactly the same thing that they had been doing the entire race and I have started to be more aggressive,” revealed the 55.
Vasseur: “The rhythm was there”
“If we had lasted another lap, we could have won today,” Sainz said. McLaren had managed to set the fastest pace per lap (1:32.128), closely followed by Red Bull (69 thousandths) and Ferrari (11 hundredths). Meanwhile, Norris lifted his first driver of the day trophy in 2024 by receiving 41% of the votes.
The variety on the podium, with three manufacturers (McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari) and three different motorists (Mercedes, Honda, Ferrari), was not going to go unnoticed. Nor the first point of the season for Alpine, specifically for Esteban Ocon, tenth. “Maybe we felt a little frustrated, because we had the race pace there,” value Fred Vasseur, team principal from Scuderia.