"He didn't deserve that": Carlos Sainz should not have been penalised in Australia

Peter Windsor, an F1 pundit, has opined that the penalty given to Carlos Sainz in the 2023 F1 Australian GP was unfair.

Sainz was handed a five-second penalty after colliding with Fernando Alonso after the second standing race restart. Since it was a first lap incident, the Spaniard was furious to learn about the penalty.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor shed light on the ridiculous nature of the penalty. He gave an example of how Lance Stroll was given a grid penalty for the next race when he had a massive crash with Alonso at the 2022 F1 US GP.

Windsor felt that the grid penalty would have been much better, instead of a time penalty which ruined the Ferrari driver's race. He said:

"There's no way in the world Carlos Sainz deserves to lose that fourth place or even a points finish. I mean it's just ridiculous. I think I'm correct in saying that when Lance Stroll took out Fernando Alonso in the U.S Grand Prix last year, just drove into him on the straight, when he did that didn't he then get a grid penalty at the next race or something like that? I think he did, so the precedent is there."

He explained how the rule could have been slightly changed simply because the 2023 Australian GP was not a normal race thanks to all the crashes and red flags. He added:

"When it comes actually to this business of, you know, hitting somebody causing an avoidable accident, the protocol says it has to be a five second penalty or a 10 second penalty and they didn't want to go beyond that which to me is ludicrous, because we were going beyond the norm in so many respects in this race."

Windsor concluded:

"That's something that I think needs to be looked at, I think it's completely wrong that this penalty was just handed out to Sainz and they were given no chance really to discuss it."

Due to the penalty, Carlos Sainz ended up in 12th position and out of the points.

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Carlos Sainz's heartbreaking radio message after getting penalty in 2023 F1 Australian GP

After Carlos Sainz learned that he received a penalty for colliding with Fernando Alonso during the second race restart, he was furious with the decision.

While sitting in his car, Sainz spoke to his race engineers, urging them to ask the stewards to talk to him after the race before imposing the penalty. Through the radio, he said:

"No, it cannot be. Do I deserve to be out of the points? No. It's unacceptable. Tell them, it's unacceptable. They need to wait until the race is finished and discuss it with me."

After the race, Carlos Sainz stated that it was the most unfair penalty he has ever seen in his F1 career.