Carlos Sainz reiterates call for major F1 change after recent controversy

Carlos Sainz has reiterated his desire for F1 to move to permanent stewards following the successful overturning of his Dutch GP penalty after a Right of Review.

At Zandvoort, Sainz made contact with Liam Lawson at Turn 1, and was awarded a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence for causing a collision, but felt aggrieved at the nature of the sanction. 

After the race, Williams lodged a Right of Review with the stewards, with this being held after the Italian GP, once the original stewards panel had reconvened to decide if Williams had presented "new, relevant, and significant" evidence demanded to re-open the case.

Camera footage obtained after the decision and Zandvoort race were submitted, with the stewards ultimately deciding to cancel the two penalty points awarded to the Spanish driver, but could not remove the time penalty as this had been served.

The removal of the points was Williams' intention, but F1's rotating panel of stewards has come under scrutiny, with those serving voluntarily, with no fixed person serving at every race.

The cost of who would cover the salaries of permanent stewards has been raised as one barrier, but Sainz is adamant that F1 should move in this direction.

"F1 and the FIA all agree that [permanent stewards] should be the way forward, where at least two of the three stewards are permanent and we have one rotational for teaching purposes," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365, in Baku.

"For sporting fairness purposes, it should be to have one rotational but two permanent, and we shouldn't care about who pays, because there is enough money in this sport to pay those salaries in the same way there's enough money in the sport to pay the salaries of all the other people.

"So if that's the right way forward, I cannot believe we're talking about those salaries.

"What would help is that if I knew the referee was the same in every race, for me, I would know the pattern and, through years of working with them, how they were going to judge an incident in that moment. 

"When you work with different races with different referees, it is very difficult to understand if [a penalty] is coming or not.

"I think not everyone agrees that they can use the argument of football.

"We have different referees and no one complains, but there could be a guy who gets penalised two or three times and he will start blaming 'the steward that hates me."

"So I understand where they come from, those not in favour or permanent stewards, I understand, but I just have a very clear opinion on it."

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Sainz on Right of Review process

Sainz has been subject to a Right of Review before, at the 2023 Australian GP where he was handed a devastating five-second time penalty for hitting Fernando Alonso at one of the late restarts, dropping him out of the points.

There, the stewards rejected the review, but the four-time grand prix winner was thankful to the stewards for reopening his case as it was "black and white."

"After Zandvoort, you saw me quite upset about the whole situation because I was very convinced that we had a point, and they were quite open to the discussion," he added.

"I could tell that they had a good conversation and realisation that maybe the judgment was not fully correct, and there were enough mechanisms to open the discussion again. 

"I think that is a positive step, and the fact that they even took the opportunity to cancel the penalty points is a good sign. 

"I'm not saying every case and scenario should be the same, but cases like that were pretty obvious.

"The problem, I think, is that it was not as obvious as it could be, down to interpretation, but it was black and white, like there should never have been a penalty.

"I think it was so obvious the moment we presented the new evidence, that it was enough to open the discussion again and get it to correct itself."