Carlos Sainz penalty was harsh as F1 pundit reckons "there is a lot of leeway given" for those incidents

F1 pundit Mark Hughes feels that the five-second penalty handed to Carlos Sainz after the second red flag of the 2023 F1 Australian GP was a bit harsh. In turn one, Sainz accidentally collided with Fernando Alonso from the back, causing Alonso to spin and lightly touch the wall. This brought out the safety car and eventually another red flag after both Alpines collided with each other as well.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Mark Hughes explained that the penalty received by Carlos Sainz was too harsh for something that happened on the first lap of the restart. Additionally, the race was red-flagged before the lap was even set by a car, which meant that the lap could not be counted as part of the race. Hughes said:

"I think it [penalty] was [harsh] because it was effectively a first lap, and normally there is a lot of leeway given with incidents on the first lap. It's very easy on cold breaks and in a compressed field to accidentally snag a car. The other point, of course, is that it was a penalty for a section of the race that, in hindsight, did not count. So, he [Carlos Sainz] got penalized for something that happened in a part of the race that did not count, that's more of a philosophical problem."

He concluded:

"I do think it was harsh, because it was just a typical first lap, slight misjudgement, and it had consequences."

After the race ended, even Fernando Alonso, who was hit by the Ferrari driver, felt that the penalty was too harsh for the young Spaniard. Moreover, Alonso's car suffered no major damage after the collision.

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Carlos Sainz furious after receiving 5-second penalty in F1 Australian GP

Carlos Sainz had one of his worst race weekends in the 2023 F1 Australian GP. He was running in fourth position when he accidentally collided with Fernando Alonso on the first lap of the second restart. After several other collisions, the session was once again red-flagged and Sainz was handed a five-second penalty.

When the race engineer informed him about the penalty, the Spaniard was furious and urged his team to ask the stewards to wait and let him talk to them after the race. 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."

However, the race control did not hold back and handed him the penalty, which threw the Spaniard into 12th position and out of the points.