Ralf Schumacher believes that Carlos Sainz should have been penalized much more severely after his clash with Oscar Piastri at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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The controversy around the clash between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri continues to grow after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
While the Williams driver received a five-second penalty for hitting the race leader while he was a lap down, Ralf Schumacher believes this penalty is far too lenient.
The former Formula 1 driver considers that this type of incident cannot be treated as a simple racing incident.
“This is the kind of situation that makes you furious. Neither of the two drivers involved was fighting for points, then the race leader comes through and Sainz hits his car.”
“A standard penalty is not enough”
For Schumacher, the stewards should have gone much further to send a clear message to the entire grid.
The German believes that a simple time penalty does not reflect the seriousness of the incident.
“In my eyes, it is totally unacceptable. A standard penalty is not enough.”
He even goes as far as demanding a sporting penalty for the next round of the championship.
“Carlos Sainz should be penalized at the next race. For me, he should receive a grid penalty or a qualifying penalty at Zandvoort.”
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According to him, not acting more firmly would set a dangerous precedent.
“Otherwise, it will set a precedent. This kind of thing must absolutely not happen.”
Blue flags excuse nothing
The incident occurred in a particular context, marked by a failure of the blue flag display system on the Hungaroring circuit.
Several drivers explained that they did not receive the usual alerts on their steering wheels, a situation that also prompted Toto Wolff to criticize the engineers of some teams, whom he called “Teletubbies” for not warning their drivers enough.
Carlos Sainz even relied on this failure to explain his mistake.
“Every driver knows what to do”
Ralf Schumacher, however, is not very convinced by this defense.
According to him, a driver has enough information to know that a leader is coming up behind him, even in case of technical problems.
“Every driver knows what is happening. There is his engineer talking to him, he can ask questions and he can also look in his mirrors.”
The former driver goes even further by stating that a competitor unable to monitor what is happening around him has no place on the track.
“If someone tells me he can’t look in his mirrors while driving, then he is out of his depth and should stop. What happened is really against the sporting spirit.”
These statements fuel an already heated debate, while Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri continue to defend radically opposing versions of this clash that cost the McLaren driver the lead of the race before his retirement due to a gearbox problem.
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