Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was left wondering why Williams were not punished when Nicholas Latifi held him up at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend.
Sainz had an eventful Saturday in Monaco as the team earned a 25,000 euro fine for giving the Spaniard “grossly incorrect” messages as to how much clear air there was behind him, thus leading him to inadvertently impede the 23-year-old.
“Approaching Turns 17 and 18, the driver of Car 55 [Sainz] was given a series of grossly incorrect messages, by radio, about the gaps to the cars behind,” read the stewards’ report.
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“It is unclear to the Stewards why such misleading information was given to the driver, who was under the impression that there was no car immediately behind him.
“Due to the poor rear visibility at that part of the circuit, the driver was relying entirely on the team’s messages.”
“The driver of Car 55 almost came to a stop on the circuit. This is unacceptable and hence the penalty of a reprimand is imposed.”
Sainz would later hold up the other Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel as they headed up to Massenet, but the stewards took no further action on that incident.
During the race on Sunday, the 27-year-old lost the lead to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez when he was stuck for half of his out lap behind the Williams of Nicholas Latifi, who did not obey the blue flag commands until after they had passed Portier.
Sainz accredited Red Bull’s win to that time loss after the race and, while he has no issue with his own punishment, is baffled as to why Williams were not given the same treatment.
“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.
“This is where we want more clarity. And we want more consistency. It’s as simple as that.”
Mattia Binotto, team principal of Ferrari, is less pleased about the fine his team received last Friday, but is ready to accept it.
“The traffic situation in Monaco is always very difficult,” he explained.
“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.”
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The other Williams of Alex Albon also held up the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for a full lap during the race, and this compounded the awful strategy he was put on by Ferrari.
These factors conspired to turn pole position into fourth place on a disappointing day for the Scuderia.