Calls grow for harsher Sainz penalty after Hungarian GP incident

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes Carlos Sainz deserved a harsher penalty than the five-second sanction he received during the Hungarian Grand Prix after ruining the race of then leader Oscar Piastri.

The stewards' report made it clear that a 10-second penalty is the usual sanction for causing a collision. In this case, though, they settled on five seconds after taking mitigating circumstances into account. Their assessment found that Sainz did not have Piastri in sight when he made the move, with both the track layout and the surrounding traffic limiting his view. Despite a radio warning about the Australian's presence, the stewards ruled that those circumstances were enough to lessen Sainz's responsibility and reduce the penalty.