Sainz baffled by Lindblad escaping penalty: I never got away with anything

The FIA stewards continue to make controversial decisions in 2026. Contentious and controversial rulings will probably always be part of life in Formula 1. In this case, however, the problem is that the stewards seem to ignore some incidents altogether.

Collisions at the front receive far more attention, while battles at the back of the field seemingly do not matter. This is a trend we have seen for a long time. The stewards quite clearly judge incidents according to where in the field they take place, but they also quite evidently take the consequences into account.

That is not how it should be. Collisions and incidents should receive the same attention regardless of whether the battle is for first or last place. Nor should they be judged by their consequences. Yet those principles appear to have been disregarded when assessing the incident between Carlos Sainz and Arvid Lindblad at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

“I’m surprised he got away with that because, obviously, he’s putting someone in the wall and creating what could have potentially been a very big accident,” said Sainz. “I backed out in time, but I picked up a lot of front-wing damage, which compromised my first stint. On top of that, obviously a slow pit stop to change the front wing, seven, eight seconds extra.”

“I managed to recover from there, and I settled down into a decent pace for the rest of the race. So yeah, bit of a shame at the start and that lap one was compromised, and stint one was compromised, but it is what it is,” said Sainz.

Sainz damaged his front wing in the contact with Lindblad and decided to have it replaced at his first scheduled pit stop. Williams realistically had no chance of scoring points, but that should be of no concern to the stewards when assessing incidents. Lindblad ruined his rival’s race, yet was not even investigated for it. There was therefore no official explanation of why the stewards decided not to impose a penalty.

“We are all very high standards,” continued Sainz, who has himself caused several unpleasant incidents this season, as he acknowledged. “It’s just that sometimes someone has a bit of an off moment, which always happens in F1.”

“My opinion is that Arvid was maybe too much on me, but we’ve all been too much one or two days. What I’m surprised is that when you’re too much, you get away with it. Whenever I’ve been too much, I’ve never got away with it. I’m surprised that someone got away with it because it was a pretty nasty moment there on the wall,” added the Spanish driver.