Aston Martin complaint against Ferrari: Sainz should not have returned to the track, risk of penalty

Sprint Race and qualifying day in Shanghai, another mystery linked to the application of the regulations. After the theme of the Chinese GP on Friday track limit taking center stage, complete with the cancellation and readmission of Lando Norris’s pole time, this time the discussion is about what happened to Carlos Sainz during Q2. Aston Martin has in fact presented an official complaint to the FIA ​​commissioners requesting the exclusion of the Spaniard from the second qualifying sessionciting in support of the appeal the failure to comply with article 39.6 of the Sports Regulations.

WHAT THE REGULATION SAYS

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The rule in question talks about possible stops on the track during qualifying and establishes that “anyone who stops the car on the track during a qualifying session or during a Sprint Shootout cannot continue to be part of that session”. The situation therefore seems related to what happened to Sainz in Q2: the Ferrari driver hit the wall on the exit of turn 16, but then managed to slowly return to the pits, taking advantage of the red flag to allow the mechanics to carry out all the necessary repairs on the his SF-24. Illicitly, as claimed by Aston Martin which evidently wants Carlos to slip to 15th place to gain a position with Lance Stroll (11th and first of those excluded) and perhaps also to have a better chance of defending Alonso’s position in the race.

INTERPRETATION

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The regulations seem to indicate that Sainz, although he managed to restart, should have remained in the pits and possibly returned to the track only for Q3 (from which he would however have been excluded, given that he did not have a timed time due to the accident). What happened certainly has very little precedent if we consider that, when there are accidents in qualifying, in the vast majority of cases the drivers do not have the possibility of returning to the pits and starting again. Everything will therefore depend on the interpretation that the FIA ​​stewards panel will give to article 39.6 of the regulation and specifically to the concept of “car stopped on the track”: if on the one hand it is true that Sainz was in fact stopped (so much so that in the official monitors it is the wording “Stop” appeared), on the other hand it is undeniable how he managed to start again alone and without help from the course marshals. The decision of the panel should arrive in the next few minutes, led for the occasion by the former Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.