Sainz one reprimand away from 10-place grid drop

Ian Parkes
Saturday 10 September 2022 17:10

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has landed a fourth reprimand of the current F1 season in the wake of his latest misdemeanour during Italian Grand Prix practice.

Sainz has received the reprimand from the stewards, and Ferrari has been warned as a team, after he drove unnecessarily slowly during FP3, badly affecting Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas.

A stewards' report read: "The driver argued that he had to drive below 60km/h on his in-lap in order to cool down his tyres.

"The stewards checked the telemetry of a number of other cars, including that of his team-mate [Charles Leclerc] and noted the other cars were at least 20km/h faster at turn one than car 55 [which at one point during this incident was recorded at 50km/h].

"The stewards also considered, in possible mitigation, the driver of car 55 checked his mirrors no less than six times between the control line and the entry to turn one.

"However, the fact remains that he drove unnecessarily slowly and as a result, a potentially dangerous situation was created.

"Further, the team is formally warned it needs to be more alert in informing its drivers of approaching cars and it is wrong to assume that cars will always do a cool-down lap after a push lap.

"In this case, the driver received no information at all from the team about the rapid approach of car 77 [Bottas]."

It is Sainz's fourth reprimand of the season, placing him one away from a potential 10-place grid penalty should he receive another for a driving offence.

Under the regulations, drivers are hit with a penalty for collecting five reprimands, four of which need to be for driving offences.

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda was initially hit with such a punishment for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix after collecting a fifth reprimand of the year in last weekend's Dutch GP prior to being sent to the back of the grid for numerous PU component changes.

Sainz's previous three offences were: unsafe release during Bahrain GP FP3 [non-driving]; impeding of Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu during Australian GP FP1 [driving]; impeding of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll during Monaco GP FP3 [driving].