Ferrari Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz has been summoned to the stewards as part of three separate investigations in the aftermath of Saturday track action at the British Grand Prix.
Sainz is seeing the stewards at 5:50pm local time, then at 6:00pm local time and at 6:10pm local time.
The first hearing is to do with his sprint race run-in with George Russell, for which Sainz is virtually guaranteed to escape any sanction.
The Williams driver had locked up on the exit of Brooklands and barged Sainz off as they battled side by side, leaving Sainz to recover from last place in F1’s inaugural sprint.
Asked by The Race whether Russell deserved sanction, Sainz – who recovered to 11th, two places behind Russell – said: “A small penalty I wouldn’t mind, I think I deserve to be in front of him starting tomorrow, I think it would be a bit unfair for him to start the race in front of me after the obvious mistake that he did today.
“It happens to all of us, it has happened to me in the past, but yeah, I think you also need to accept the consequences of when you do this sort of mistake.
“Normally the stewards on lap one, they kind of close their eyes a bit more compared to later in the race, but for me this was mistake was a bit too obvious.”
However, Sainz will also then have to speak to the stewards about the manner in which he rejoined the track after his Russell-induced trip through the gravel.
Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen all had to take rapid avoiding action as Sainz rejoined, and the stewards are investigating him for an “alleged rejoining the track in an unsafe manner”.
That hearing is scheduled for the top of the hour. Consequently, 10 minutes later he will be facing the stewards over an “alleged not following race director’s instruction”.
This is relating to the practice starts at the end of Saturday morning practice, which the stewards say may have “failed to follow the race director’s notes” – in particular section 18.1.
This states that practice starts cannot be carried out in the pitlane, and that “all drivers carrying out a practice start must do so by pulling as far forward on the grid as possible and, if necessary, should wait for others to carry out a start before getting to a grid position further forward. Under no circumstances should a driver make a practice start if another car is still stationary in front of him on the same side of the grid”.
Also summoned regarding a possible practice start infringement in FP2 are Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin.
