Guenther Steiner Critiques FIA for Carlos Sainz's Penalty at Hungarian GP

Guenther Steiner, the former Haas Formula 1 team principal, has expressed his belief that Carlos Sainz should have faced a more severe penalty for his collision with Oscar Piastri at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

During the race at the Hungaroring, Sainz collided with Piastri's McLaren while being lapped. Despite Piastri having pitted from the lead, Sainz did not yield, resulting in a five-second penalty from the stewards.

The FIA attributed the leniency of the penalty to technical issues, including a faulty GPS tracking system and a glitch in the blue flag software. However, Steiner criticized this reasoning, arguing that a standard ten-second penalty should have been enforced to establish a precedent for backmarkers. He emphasized that the systems should function properly and that mitigating circumstances should not influence penalties. The incident negatively impacted Piastri's race, leading to his retirement due to a gearbox issue, while Sainz finished in 18th place.