Why Carlos Sainz called his penalty the 'biggest disgrace in the sport' 

Carlos Sainz was completely broken after he received a five-second penalty for hitting Fernando Alonso after the second race restart in the 2023 F1 Australian GP. He kept pleading with his team to delay the penalty and let him talk to the stewards.

Unfortunately, the stewards simply gave him the penalty, which forced him to end up in 12th place and out of the points.

Speaking to the media after the race, Sainz was completely dejected and said:

"It's the biggest disgrace I've seen in the sport for many years. it's the most unfair penalty I've ever seen in my life."

F1 pundit and presenter Ted Kravitz recently tried to understand why Carlos Sainz was so angry and explored other possible outcomes that would have been fairer.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, he explained that if the Ferrari driver got a time penalty for an incident that happened in the first lap, then incidents like Lance Stroll hitting his teammate Charles Leclerc, both Alpines hitting each other, and even Logan Sargeant hitting Nyck de Vries should also be penalized.

Kravitz said:

"I think Sainz's point was it was lap one, where there's always a little bit more leniency, and if you penalize me for that, then you have to penalize Lance Stroll for taking out my teammate. Even though it wasn't really Lance's fault but he's [Carlos Sainz] saying it wasn't really my fault [either]."

"And you have to penalize Pierre Gasly for taking out Esteban Ocon, which wasn't really either of their fault because it was a racing incident because Gasly came on [and] didn't see Ocon."

Kravitz deciphered how Carlos Sainz's main point was how inconsistent the penalties are in F1. Moreover, he could have been less angry if he had been given a chance to talk to the stewards or Fernando Alonso after the race. Kravitz concluded:

"Sainz's point was that there is a fundamental inconsistency. I think he's putting it quite strongly, but he was emotional, you can understand why. And crucially, they didn't listen [to] what he had to say. And he wanted to be able to go up to the stewards, explain what was going on, to hear from Fernando."

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Carlos Sainz's heartbreaking radio message after the 2023 F1 Australian GP

Even after the 2023 F1 Australian GP came to an end, Carlos Sainz was adamant about talking to the stewards about his penalty. He was not only angry but extremely sad to lose all the positions and points.

While speaking to his team on the team radio after the race, Sainz expressed his raw emotions in a shaky voice, pleading with his team to do something. He said:

"Please guys, do something. Please, I cannot still believe it. We are P3 and P4, and they took me out of the points for that, for a one lap incident. So unfair, I cannot believe they do this to me... Let me at least discuss (it) with the stewards in the stewards' room."

It is clear that the Spaniard had one of the worst races in Albert Park this season, simply because of the penalty for something that happened in the first lap of the second race restart.