FIA adds two penalty points to Sainz after Lawson clash at Zandvoort — Williams driver calls decision “a complete joke”
Carlos Sainz has been handed two penalty points on his superlicence for colliding with Liam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix, adding to the in-race 10-second penalty that already put him on the back foot at Zandvoort. The Williams driver now sits on four penalty points in the current 12‑month window.
The flashpoint came at the Safety Car restart, Turn 1, Tarzan — the kind of corner that invites brave ideas and punishes them just as quickly. Sainz tried to sweep around the outside of Lawson’s Racing Bulls; the pair touched, both picked up punctures, and any chance of points evaporated. They eventually trailed home 12th and 13th.
Post-race, Sainz didn’t disguise his frustration. Over the radio he called the sanction “the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my life,” and doubled down in the media pen, arguing Lawson made clean wheel-to-wheel racing needlessly difficult. “It’s a corner that allows two cars to race each other without contact,” Sainz said. “But with Liam, it always seems to be very difficult to make that happen. He prefers a bit of contact and risks a DNF or a puncture. Hopefully that comes with more experience. But on top of that, to then get that 10-second penalty for it, I think it’s a complete joke.”
The stewards — armed with replays, telemetry and radio — saw it differently. Their report was blunt: Sainz’s Williams (Car 55) wasn’t ahead at the apex, Lawson (Car 30) therefore had the corner, and the Williams’ attempt to hang on around the outside caused the contact. The 10-second time penalty was “standard for a collision of this nature” under the guidelines. The additional two penalty points follow automatically from that ruling.
Lawson, who’s been quietly racking up hard miles in his first full season, kept his response measured but sharp. “He was overtaking me today and I also think he got a penalty today, so he can make all the comments in the world he likes,” the Racing Bulls driver said. “I wish he’d just come and talk to me rather than telling everybody else. But if it was my fault, I would have got a penalty. We all know how the rules are written. It’s lap one of a restart — super slippery, cold tyres. It’s fine to go for the move, but it’s risky. In the end we made contact, and that’s why he got a penalty.”
Under F1’s penalty-point system, 12 points in a 12‑month period equals an automatic race ban — a line everyone knows not to cross, especially after last season’s first enforced suspension of the era. Sainz isn’t close to that cliff edge at four, but Zandvoort does leave a mark on his record and, more importantly, on a weekend that never recovered after the restart.
Strip away the emotion and you’re left with a classic Tarzan tangle. The outside move into Turn 1 can work — we’ve seen it — but on a Safety Car restart with cold tyres, the margins are razor-thin. The stewards have been consistent about the inside car’s entitlement if it’s ahead at the apex; the outside driver has to either complete the pass before turn-in or accept the squeeze. Sainz went for the former, Lawson defended hard on the inside, and the physics of orange banked tarmac did the rest.
There’s also a broader theme here. Williams has asked Sainz to be sharp at the elbows this season as the midfield compresses, and he’s obliged. Racing Bulls, meanwhile, has built its year on scrapping for every inch with a young pairing that doesn’t scare easily. Put those two truths in the same braking zone and you don’t always get harmony.
The noise will fade, as it always does by the time freight lands at the next round, but both drivers will log the lesson. For Sainz, it’s a reminder that Zandvoort punishes optimism on cold tyres. For Lawson, it’s another day in the school of hard knocks — and a timely endorsement from the stewards that his line at Turn 1 was within the lines.
What will linger is the tone. Sainz went public with his criticism. Lawson would’ve preferred a quiet chat. Neither is wrong, but it tells you plenty about where each sits in the paddock pecking order right now: the seasoned race-winner with a platform and an opinion, and the hungry newcomer with a thick skin and the rulebook on his side.
