Carlos Sainz: F1’s racing rules are “a bit blurry” after “really harsh” US GP penalty

Carlos Sainz believes F1’s racing rules “are still a bit blurry”, citing Oscar Piastri’s sprint race penalty as being “really harsh”.

The stewards’ decision making has been a hot topic in light of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ controversial Turn 12 incident.

Norris was handed a five-second time penalty for ‘leaving the track and gaining an advantage’ after he was pushed wide by Verstappen.

The stewards adopted a harsher approach with a number of penalties handed out in Sunday’s race, including George Russell on Valtteri Bottas at the same corner.

Piastri was handed a five-second time penalty for the sprint race after he was deemed to have forced Alpine’s Pierre Gasly off the track.

Speaking in the FIA press conference after their 1-2 finish at the Circuit of the Americas, Sainz and Charles Leclerc were asked if the racing rules were clear or not.

Sainz commented: “I think some things are. Others are still a bit blurry to me, let's put it like that. I think there was an example yesterday with Oscar's overtake.

“That for me was completely fine and very similar to anything that we've done between each other on the sprint. And I felt like the penalty on Oscar yesterday was really, really harsh and didn't go along with some guidelines that I thought were the way they were.

“So yeah, that penalty surprised me yesterday. About today, I have no clue because I haven't seen, I haven't gone five seconds by five seconds penalty to see. So let's see.”

Leclerc admitted it will be a likely topic in the next drivers’ briefing in Mexico.

“Yeah, I agree with Carlos on Oscar's penalty yesterday,” he added. “I also thought it was a bit too harsh.

“However, on the rules, I think they are clear. Sometimes the interpretation of the rule can be a little bit different because it will be impossible to have a rule book that takes every single scenario.

“Every scenario is different, has its particularity, and you've got to analyse it in a different way and interpret the rules in some ways for particular scenarios, which is what the FIA is trying to do best.

“However, sometimes we disagree, and I think on the one of yesterday, it's something that we'll probably talk of in the next driver briefing.”