Felipe Massa believed that Carlos Sainz Jr deserved a bigger punishment for causing the first lap crash during the Canadian Grand Prix that ended with both drivers retiring from the race.
The Williams Martini Racing driver believed that the Scuderia Toro Rosso driver’s actions at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve were on par to that of Romain Grosjean during the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, when the Frenchman caused a multi-car first corner shunt that earned him a one-race ban.
Sainz moved across, ironically, on Grosjean on the run down to turn three, which meant the Spaniard spun, and out of control hit the innocent Massa who was minding his own business entering the corner.
“When I saw [the crash], he [Sainz] started it, which is a shame,” said Massa. “I don’t think it was so different compared to what Grosjean did and he [Sainz] only lost three places at the start.
“I remember before, when Grosjean was doing a few dangerous manoeuvres they gave him one race at home. But now I think maybe they need to be strong as well.
“Fortunately nothing happened [in Canada] but it could have been like a big accident. And I think if we had a big accident, the result would have been different, which is not correct.
“We saw so many people losing three places [on the grid] by doing a very little thing – and then you are doing a lot more dangerous thing and you have three places. It’s inconsistent.”
Carlos Sainz Jr feels the decision by the stewards should be accepted and the incident forgotten about – Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images
Sainz apologised at the time for the incident but felt the punishment called for by Massa was unjustified, and he was surprised that two weeks after the incident it was still being discussed.
The Spaniard blamed a blindspot in his mirrors for moving across on Haas F1 Team racer Grosjean, but he feels his three-place penalty is sufficient.
“I went to the stewards, commented with Romain, with Haas,” said Sainz to Autosport. “They all clearly saw what happened, that Romain was in my blind spot.
“Since then I apologised, and people tend to keep going on and on about it.
“In Canada on Sunday I was watching onboards of Baku, and people on Friday in Baku are still thinking about Sunday in Canada, and asking for race bans, which I don’t find very gentleman or polite.
“Especially when the stewards saw it and gave me a three-place grid penalty.”
