Appeal won, Carlos Sainz praises FIA for acknowledging error: “Permanent stewards are needed”. Carlos Sainz applauds the FIA after winning Williams’ appeal on the Zandvoort penalty.

Carlos Sainz welcomed the FIA’s reversal after Williams successfully appealed his penalty for the Zandvoort incident.

Sainz heads to Baku with two extra points

In recent weeks, Carlos Sainz has been involved in two highly debated incidents – the contact with Liam Lawson in Zandvoort and with Oliver Bearman in Monza. Paradoxically, he was penalized in situations where he bore no real responsibility. The penalty he received in the Netherlands was contested by Williams, which exercised its right to review and won the appeal.

Since the contact with Lawson was caused by the New Zealander losing control of his car, Carlos Sainz had the two license points reinstated. However, the ten-second race penalty could not be removed because he had already served it on track. In short, it was a bittersweet victory – the Spanish driver had his race affected – but #55 praised the FIA for reversing the decision.

Carlos Sainz’s comments

“After the race, I was convinced it was either a mistake or a lapse in judgment, and I am very pleased that the FIA had the resources and ability to change this decision. I think this says a lot about the incident itself, but also about the progress the Federation has made in reviewing these situations. It’s not very common, that’s true, but it shouldn’t be: we don’t want to challenge every steward decision, but in this case, it seemed obvious,” he said. “Going forward, the only thing I support is the introduction of permanent stewards. I think it would be useful in cases like this, and I continue to work on understanding how we can help the FIA improve the judgment of these decisions.”

Looking ahead to Baku

Carlos Sainz also spoke about Baku, where he started the weekend in the top 10: “Looking at the layout, it could be a good circuit for us, but tire management is very difficult, which is one of our main weaknesses. There have always been exciting races here: I’m not a fan of the circuit layout itself because the corners are all similar, but the proximity of the walls, the high speeds, and the low downforce make Baku an exciting track.”