Sainz wants ‘urgent’ meeting on racing guidelines

Carlos Sainz, the FIA’s executive director, says that Formula 1 drivers “urgently” need a meeting with the governing body.

The McLaren driver, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), called the 10-second penalty given to Oscar Piastri at the previous Brazilian race “unacceptable.”

Sainz claimed Oscar wasn’t at fault for the collision between Piastri and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who pitched the Antonelli into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Everyone who has actually driven a race car knows that he could have avoided an accident there and that he was fined ten seconds.

Sainz claimed there have been several instances this year where drivers have been subject to penalties for actions that do not merit punishment, including three in which he was allegedly involved with Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls in the Dutch Grand Prix, Oliver Bearman of Haas in Italy, and Antonelli of Austin.

On the day before the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend, Sachin said, “I didn’t understand my Zandvoort penalty.”

“I didn’t understand why Ollie was penalized for our collision in Monza,” she said. I immediately told him out of the race because he was not meriting that punishment. I had no idea how I could capture ten seconds in Austin. Then there’s the Brazil situation.

“This year, there have been a lot of incidents that are far from what the sport should be,” I said.

The drivers will meet with FIA stewards at the upcoming race in Qatar to review what Sainz’s team-mate Alex Albon called the “list” of incidents that they believe need to be looked at.

After what I saw in Brazil, Sainz said, “It’s very clear for me that it’s something that’s not quite working if we had to determine that as a 10-second penalty for the guy who had no fault for anything that he did.”

Stewards are given a difficult task by the FIA at the start of the year in terms of interpretation of the driving standards’ guidelines.

These were put together after the drivers’ consultation, but the GPDA did not approve them before publication.

Drivers generally believe that the rules are being strictly followed, without using common sense and practical knowledge to explain how wheel-to-wheel racing operated.

Piastri was fined because he repeatedly failed to adhere to the rules for his front axle, at least in the incident’s aftermath, and had locked his brakes to avoid being deemed out of control.

However, Sainz claimed that he “struggled” with how the guards interpreted a locked brake.

A steward interprets a lock-up as out of control, he said. A “lock-up” doesn’t always mean out of control. You can lock up and maintain your apex.

Oscar locked up in Brazil as a result of Kimi’s actions, and I locked up in Austin as a result.

“We weren’t going to miss the apex crash and cause a significant accident,” the statement read. Therefore, I believe that the way those lock-ups are interpreted as being “out of control” needs to be changed.

There is a bit of a wording or a view that a car is deemed to be out of control, according to Mercedes’ George Russell, a fellow GPDA director.

The car’s interior is always empty, and the tires are never even on the ground, causing the tyre to lock up in Brazil, but you are in complete control.

Therefore, there must be guidelines and you must treat each and every corner, every circuit, and incident in particular.

Russell argued that the FIA should designate permanent stewards to improve the situation.

Albon continued, “The FIA’s” approach to it is not ignorant. An open-minded attitude is displayed in the form of “OK, please, let’s work together and come up with a solution.”