Carlos Sainz: 'Disproportionate’ penalty exposes F1 rules 'weakness'

Carlos Sainz believes his five-place grid penalty for the Mexico City Grand Prix “exposes weaknesses” in F1’s rules.

The Williams driver was hit with a five-place grid drop for crashing into Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli during last weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Sainz attempted to overtake Antonelli during an early battle in Sunday’s race in Austin, but clattered into the side of the 19-year-old Italian’s Mercedes when he dived down the inside at Turn 15.

The contact sent Antonelli spinning around, while Sainz suffered race-ending suspension damage that forced him to retire. Antonelli was able to continue, eventually coming home 13th.

Sainz will serve the five-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

"What happened on track stays on track,” Sainz said during Thursday’s FIA driver press conference in Mexico City.

“The five-place penalty the stewards gave me I found it completely disproportionate to what the incident itself was.

“It exposes weaknesses in the rules we have. It is what it is and I have to take it. I assume my share of responsibility for the incident and I wish we both could have continued the race.

"But after looking at the data and all of the onboards that we looked it, the fact that they still decided to give me five-place for here, it’s difficult to understand, difficult to accept but whatever.

"I still need to qualify as far ahead as possible and give myself the best chance to get back to the points. I feel everything has finally clicked for me, and I hope I can have a clean weekend.”

Antonelli has ‘different view’ to Sainz

Antonelli, who was sat alongside Sainz in the press conference, refused to go into specifics but said he has a “different view” on the incident.

“It was a shame because we were both in a decent position and obviously the contact basically ended both of our races,” he explained.

“I have a different view on the crash. Carlos has his view but it is what it is and now we move on.”

On the positives he can take from the Austin weekend, Antonelli added: "Despite being a difficult track we got up to speed fairly quickly.

“Q3 was a bit disappointing as I didn't put everything together - lap 1 with the DRS, the bump triggered the button so the DRS didn’t open. There was a couple of places on the grid in that.

“The pace was looking okay, after the contact the laps in free air looked very good. We didn't come out with the result we wanted but we have another chance this weekend."