Carlos Sainz left Zandvoort simmering with fury after Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, where his race unravelled in the aftermath of a collision with Racing Bulls rookie Liam Lawson. The Williams driver was handed a 10-second penalty by the FIA stewards for causing the clash, a sanction he branded a “complete joke” as he launched one of the strongest criticisms of race officials seen this season.
The incident came on lap 26 at Turn 1, just after a safety car restart. Both Sainz and Lawson sustained punctures, limped back to the pits, and fell out of points contention. For Sainz, it was a bitter blow: Williams teammate Alex Albon came home fifth, showing that the FW47 had the speed for a strong result. Sainz, who had been running comfortably inside the top 10 before the incident, finished 13th and empty-handed.
The defining moment of Sainz’s afternoon was his tangle with Lawson at the Tarzan corner, Zandvoort’s signature first turn. Both drivers went side by side into the banking, but contact saw both cars suffer punctures being forced to limp back to the pit lane. The stewards investigated and swiftly issued Sainz a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Sainz furious team radio message
Sainz’s radio message on hearing the decision was blunt: “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my life.” His anger only grew as he faced the media. “I wasn’t even really trying to race Liam that hard,” he explained. “I had a gap around the outside and thought, ‘okay, I’m going to start putting him a bit out of position for Turn 2 and 3.’ I wasn’t trying to pass him there. Then suddenly we had contact, which completely caught me off guard.”
The Spaniard pointed out that Turn 1 had already hosted several clean side-by-side duels earlier in the race. “It is quite clear how many examples we’ve seen of two cars racing there without contact,” he argued. “It’s a corner that allows close racing. But with Liam, it always seems to be difficult. He prefers to risk a puncture or a DNF rather than accept two cars going side by side.”
Sainz suggested Lawson’s inexperience was at the heart of the clash. “Hopefully it comes with more experience, because he’s putting too many points on the line with unnecessary manoeuvres,” he added.
Inconsistencies in F1 race officiation
However, it was the sanction itself that was the flashpoint. “To get a 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke,” Sainz declared, his frustration barely contained. As a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, he said the decision raised concerns beyond his own race. “Honestly, I need to go now to the stewards just to get an explanation. If they really consider this a 10-second penalty, then it’s not the level of stewarding that Formula One deserves.”
Sainz’s comments highlighted a broader unease about inconsistency in race officiating. “I’m talking calmly and trying to pick my words carefully, but what I’ve seen today is concerning not just for me but for the other drivers and for motorsport in general,” he said.
For Sainz, the lost points were part of a frustrating pattern in 2025. “It’s the story of my season,” he sighed. “Again a race where I could have finished P5 like Alex, 10 points, and it’s gone for something I cannot understand. It’s out of our hands.”
Verstappen shrugs of rivals complaints
Lawson to be avoided
The Dutch Grand Prix added another missed opportunity to a season that has often seen Sainz on the wrong side of luck and circumstance. Despite Williams’ progress, his own campaign has been stifled by setbacks. While Albon capitalised on the FW47’s top-five pace, Sainz once again walked away empty-handed.
He hinted that his approach to Lawson may change in future. “You need to pick your battles,” he said. “Probably Liam in his first year has chosen a bit of a ‘crash or no overtake’ approach. That’s something I’ll keep in mind.”
And so, the Dutch GP produced not just gravel trap excursions and strategy gambles but also a Sainz explosion that shook the sand dunes. Carlos, usually among the calmer voices in the paddock, was transformed into a one-man tribunal, handing the FIA stewards a withering assessment of their competence. “Complete joke,” he called it — and one suspects he wasn’t thinking of stand-up comedy.
Calls renewed for professional F1 stewards
Formula One spends fortunes on high tech sensors measuring every last detail, there are cameras showing every angle to adjudicate on track limits, yet somehow a relatively simple decision over cars brushing whilst side by side ends in accusations of a farce. Sainz paints Lawson as the over-eager rookie with a crash-or-bust mentality, but his own fury sounded less like a measured GPDA director and more like a man who had just been served a speeding ticket he didn’t deserve.
Drivers have been calling for the professionalisation of the F1 stewarding function given it is currently a grace and favour privilege handed out by the FIA. Whilst the president of F1’s governing body, Mohhamed Ben Sulayem, has accepted there could be a role for a full time panel of F1 stewards rotating throughout the year, he demanded the question of finance be addressed.
Responding to a meeting of the GPDA where the topic was raised last November, Ben Sulayem said: “It’s very nice talk. But when they say professional, and they want professional, they don’t want to pay for it. That is so obvious. They talk and then they say: ‘Where are you putting the money? Why we don’t do this?’ But I don’t say, ‘Oh, sorry, what about you?’ The drivers are getting over $100million. Do I ask where they spend it? No, it’s up to them. It’s their right.
“So please, it’s not only me saying it is none of their business. We do whatever we do with our money. It’s our business. It’s also [the same] with them and their money. It’s their business.” The response from the president of the FIA was more “ya boo” than a serious engagement with the matter something which is unlikely to change any time soon.
Huge Hamilton penalty. “If something doesn’t happen soon….”
A completely wasted day in Zandvoort leaves Hamilton carrying a Ferrari penalty into Monza – The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort delivered a bruising weekend for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, and the fallout has spilled into the team’s home race at Monza. Hours after the chequered flag, race control announced that Hamilton had been handed a five-place grid penalty for the upcoming Italian Grand Prix, compounding what was already a disastrous Sunday.
The penalty was the result of an infringement that occurred before the race even began. During reconnaissance laps, Hamilton failed to slow sufficiently through the final corner, despite the presence of double yellow flags. The directive from race control had been clear, with drivers instructed to reduce speed at the pit entry for safety reasons. Hamilton, however, was judged to have ignored the warning on two separate occasions, an error that will now affect his grid slot in Monza.
Hamilton’s on-track performance did little to offset the disciplinary setback. The seven-time world champion retired after spinning into the barriers on lap 15. Later in the race, teammate Charles Leclerc collided with Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli, leaving Ferrari with no points from a weekend where they had shown flashes of competitiveness. While Ferrari’s package looked improved on Dutch soil, optimism about converting that progress into a strong home result has already been tempered by Hamilton’s penalty….. READ MORE
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