Carlos Sainz insists the FIA needs to have the flexibility to "revisit and reanalyse" penalties in the wake of the punishment he received for his clash with Liam Lawson in the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Williams driver, who is a Grand Prix Drivers' Association director, was furious with the decision to hand him a 10-second time penalty for his collision with the New Zealander, which saw both inflicted with punctures, denying them likely points-scoring finishes and wrecking their afternoons at Zandvoort.
Sainz called Lawson "stupid" over team radio for the coming together and was shocked to find himself blamed.
Williams has since confirmed it has launched a right of review into Sainz's penalty.
The 31-year-old was forthright in his remarks in the immediate aftermath of the race and was aggrieved by seemingly being unable to discuss the call further with the stewards.
When asked by RacingNews365 ahead of the Italian Grand Prix if he still felt the same a few days on, he confirmed that he did, whilst clarifying he was in fact able to have a conversation with the officials.
"Yeah, I did get the chance to go and speak to them after the race," Sainz explained to media present at Monza.
"There was a misunderstanding while I was in the TV pen... I thought I was not going to be able to go, but in the end, I had the opportunity to go and sit with them for 15 minutes to analyse the incident.
"And it was very clear to me that as soon as they got all the evidence right, and they looked at the places that they could have looked at to take the right decision... it was very clear to me, I think they realised that probably the decision taken wasn't the best one."
Viewed by others:
Sainz: Zandvoort penalty was 'not acceptable'
In addition to Sainz's claim that the stewards came to a realisation once all usable evidence had been collected, the Spanish driver explained, as part of ongoing talks with the FIA, he is pushing for greater ability to retroactively amend miscarriages of justice from the motorsport governing body.
"Now we are trying to see if we can come up with enough evidence and enough stuff to realise if we can change the outcome of the penalty, because I still firmly believe it was a very poor penalty that I received," the four-time grand prix winner added.
"A bad judgement, which can happen, as long as you have the capacity to revisit it... and if there has been a misunderstanding or a lack of evidence or a lack of analysis, then there is still time to reanalyse it, to reopen it and change it.
"I do believe they had a very difficult Sunday, looking back at it, a very busy afternoon, and it was overwhelming because of the amount of stuff that happened in the race or not.
"But I still definitely, firmly believe what I thought after the race, obviously now in a much cooler-headed state, but I still firmly believe what happened - and the penalty - was not acceptable, and I made it very clear."
Most read
In this article
Join the conversation!