Carlos Sainz quizzed on FIA nationality bias after Fernando Alonso’s big accusation

Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso

Although Carlos Sainz would not be drawn on nationality playing a role in the stewards’ rulings, he has called them out for inconsistency after Oscar Piastri pushed him wide at the Miami Grand Prix.

Sainz’s fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso was critical of the stewards at the Miami Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton was not penalised despite arriving “like a bull” into Turn 1 in the Sprint race.

Carlos Sainz: Not about nationality, but consistency

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

Crashing into Alonso, the Aston Martin driver said he doubted Hamilton would be penalised because “he not Spanish.”

With Hamilton not penalised, Alonso doubled down his comment when he said: “I do feel that nationality matters.

“I will speak with Mohammed (Ben Sulayem, FIA president), with FIA, whatever. I need to make sure that there is not anything wrong with my nationality or anything that can influence any decision – not only for me, also for the future generation of Spanish drivers that need to be protected.”

But while Alonso feels this is a pressing issue, Sainz instead called for consistency from the stewards.

Speaking to DAZN on Sunday evening, he said: “I have no opinion on nationalities. My opinion is about consistency or inconsistency [in the penalties].”

He went onto liken his battle with Oscar Piastri in the Grand Prix, where the McLaren driver pushed him wide as they jostled over fourth place, to Kevin Magnussen’s penalty-punished antics in the Sprint.

“I was surprised that Piastri did something similar to what Magnussen did yesterday [Saturday] and he had many penalties, but not him and he didn’t give me the position back,” said Sainz.

“So after that I said to myself: ‘if we are all going like this, then let’s go for it’”.

Go for it he did, the Spaniard penalised after the race for crashing into Piastri in a move that left the Aussie needing a new front wing.

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Sainz explained: “Today for some reason they [the stewards] let us fight more than usual.

“Without giving me space, I don’t know exactly why but I took note of it and I did the same that they [his rivals] were doing to me during all the race. I started to be more aggressive.”

The Ferrari driver crossed the line in fourth place but fell to P5 as a result of his penalty. He, however, was left to his bad luck in the timing of the Safety Car as he had pitted the lap before while Lando Norris, who he was racing for position, had yet to stop.

That meant Norris was given a free pit stop and raced his way to the victory.

“The thing is that today was a great opportunity to get a podium or even to win the race given the pace we had,” Sainz added. “I did a very good start and suddenly I think it was Checo who took us all off without much control.

“Then we showed a great pace, I opened a gap to manage the tyres and just for one lap we missed the Safety Car which could have given us the win if we think about that.

“If we had stayed out one more lap we could have won, but that is a matter of luck. We had a great pace and that’s the positive thing.”