Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto does not believe that the team should have been fined 25,000 euros for impeding last weekend in Monaco.
Carlos Sainz, according to the stewards, was given “grossly” incorrect information as to the whereabouts of other cars behind him during Friday practice, and he ended up receiving a reprimand for driving unnecessarily slowly too.
As a result of that, Lance Stroll was held up by the Ferrari, who then gave the other Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel a scare by driving slowly on the inside of Massenet later in the session.
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During the race, however, Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc were caught up behind the Williams pair of Nicholas Latifi and Alex Albon respectively, with the former possibly costing the Spaniard a race win by staying in front of him for half a lap after Sainz’s stop.
That allowed Sergio Perez to jump the 27-year-old in the pits and take the third win of his career – his first in Monaco.
Binotto was left wondering after the weekend why, when his team was punished for impeding, the same did not befall Williams.
“If you see in the race, solid blue flags to Albon or Latifi and no further action,” said the Italian.
In and of itself, the 52-year-old also reckons that the fine given to them last Friday was harsh, as the Scuderia did the best they could to give Sainz accurate information.
“The traffic situation in Monaco is always very difficult,” explained Binotto.
“And I think that radio communication is critical and not obvious. We did our best, we believe that the impeding he made was certainly not dangerous.
“We’re not too happy for the fine, we believe it was not the right choice, because we believe that as a team and driver, we did our best in order to avoid it at the time and not do anything wrong.
“We need to accept those decisions, it doesn’t mean we agree with them.”
Sainz was more ready to accept that the fine during practice was fair, but he called for the stewards to be consistent, as he is adamant that he had the win taken away from him as a result of Latifi failing to let him by.
“I cannot count the times that I got impeded in Monaco this weekend, both being dangerous and not dangerous,” he told The Race.
“What I don’t understand is why we got fined €25,000 as a team for impeding – which I did and I accepted the blame and I apologised to Lance – and why other cases are not investigated and other people are not fined for exactly the same thing.
“It cost us the race and [there was] no further action, and that was proper impeding.
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“This is where we want more clarity. And we want more consistency. It’s as simple as that.”
While Sainz finished second, Ferrari’s woeful strategical errors sent Leclerc behind Max Verstappen to fourth having started on pole, culminating a hugely frustrating day for the Maranello-based side.