It's official, Sainz and Williams win the battle against the FIA
The FIA's sports commissioners have determined that Williams and Carlos Sainz were right to request a review of the penalty imposed on the Spanish driver at the Dutch Grand Prix, partially withdrawing it.
It was expected and it has happened: Williams and Carlos Sainz have won the appeal submitted to the FIA after the Dutch Grand Prix, in which the Spanish driver was penalized with 10 seconds and two points on his license for colliding with Liam Lawson.
The British team not only presented new evidence but also demonstrated that the collision was due to the momentary loss of control of the New Zealand driver from Racing Bulls, which is why they decided to remove the points penalty, although not the time penalty.
«The driver of car 30 denied having lost control of his car»
Williams presented new evidence
As stated in the document issued by the FIA, Williams presented three new pieces of evidence regarding what happened on Sunday in Zandvoort. On one hand, the images from two cameras of each car and, on the other hand, the testimony of Carlos Sainz.
Specifically, Williams argued that «the images from the 360-degree camera of car 55 and the rear camera of car 30 were not available to the team during the race because they were not transmitted during it».
This was because «they were only recorded on a card in each camera, which could barely be downloaded after the race and made available to Formula 1 later». This information was confirmed by the FIA's F1 sporting director and acknowledged by Racing Bulls. Additionally, Williams also argued that «el equipo no pudo obtener la versión del piloto del coche 55 sobre el incidente que motivó la decisión hasta después de la carrera».
For their part, the commissioners acknowledged that «the images from the 360-degree camera of car 55 and the rear camera of car 30 show the relative positions of both cars before and during the collision. Therefore, they are relevant», as well as the «account of the driver of car 55 regarding the incident».
The verdict of the commissioners
Once the requirement to demonstrate that the new evidence is relevant was overcome, the commissioners began the process of reviewing the decision made in Zandvoort.
Williams argued that «while the front axle of car 55 was not ahead of the front axle of car 30 at the apex, so car 55 did not have the right to the corner according to the F1 Driving Standards Guidelines, car 55 had the right to attempt to race alongside car 30 until turn 1.
Furthermore, the British team argued that «el coche 55 dejó espacio al coche 30 por dentro y que la colisión solamente se produjo porque the driver of car 30 momentarily lost control. They described the collision as a racing incident. They stressed that they were not suggesting that the driver of car 30 should be penalized, but that the penalty against car 55 was unjustified».
For its part, Racing Bulls argued that «la colisión solamente occurred because car 55 decided to drive too close to car 30. The driver of car 30 denied having lost control of his car and stated that a slight bump like the one that occurred is not unusual when cars compete very closely, in this case both with new tires after the safety car restart».
However, the commissioners disagreed with Liam Lawson and, after thoroughly considering the matter, reviewing the new video evidence and listening to the drivers of both cars and their team representatives, they decided to «overturn the decision».
The commissioners agreed with Williams' description of the collision as a racing incident, also convinced that «la colisión fue causada por una pérdida momentánea de control del coche 30».
Finally, the commissioners decided to remove the two-point penalty from Carlos Sainz's license, although not the 10 seconds of time that the Spaniard served during the race.
The reason is that these «do not have the authority to remedy this penalty by modifying the classifications, but they note that the difference between car 55 and the car that preceded it in the final classification of the race (coincidentally car 30) was 17 seconds».
The commissioners also noted that the incident should be classified as a «racing incident», so Liam Lawson should not be penalized.