Near-Unanimous Disagreement With Vettel's Penalty From Drivers And Pundits
While leading the race, Vettel made a slight mistake at Turn 3 and had to run across the grass. Upon rejoining the circuit, Lewis Hamilton had to take avoiding action and came on the radio to complain that the Ferrari driver had rejoined the circuit unfairly.
However, the onboard footage revealed that Vettel was still fighting the car as he came back onto the circuit and that, realistically, there was nothing more he could have done. It was a clear racing incident and yet, the stewards took the decision to issue Vettel a five-second penalty for an unsafe rejoin.
That meant that although he crossed the line first at the end of the 70 laps, he was demoted to second as Hamilton took the win, much to Vettel’s fury. After saying “you need to be an absolute blind man to think you can go through the grass and then control the car”, Vettel decided not to drive to parc ferme and instead stopped at the beginning of the pit lane and went back to his motorhome, seemingly intending on skipping the podium ceremony as a protest. The, realising this could result in further penalties, he reluctantly made his way to the rostrum - but not before heading to parc ferme, putting the P2 board in front of Hamilton’s car and the P1 board in front of the empty space where his car should have been.
It was an incredible piece of drama, but it doesn’t change the fact that the stewarding decision not only destroyed what had been a very good race, but was completely and utterly wrong. That’s not just the opinion of Vettel or indeed this writer, but of the vast majority of fans, pundits, and racing drivers. A quick scan on Twitter reveals the extent to which many disagreed with the decision.
Hamilton almost looked embarrassed to have won the grand prix in such a way, while Vettel actually dealt with his fury in an incredibly mature way, repeatedly making it clear that any negativity should be directed to those who make the decisions and not those who benefit from them.
Sebastian may have lost the race, but the biggest defeat is surely the one the sport has inflicted on itself with a bad decision at a time when it could have really used a win.
Comments
while Vettel actually dealt with his fury in an incredibly mature way,
You’re telling me that pushing car out of the pit lane, changing numbers in front of winners car, and meanwhiles leaving the pit lane to go to his motorhome is mature? He acted like 10 yo child.
To be honest I’d probably do that too if that happened to me, although I do agree that it was childish
Id wonder what youd do, when your first F1 Victory almost 2 seasons is lost to an unfair victory
I am quite conflicted on this one:
I agree that the incident was not done on purpose, you can see how he was still wrestling the steering wheel. I can see that.
However, as having been in many driver-breefings at race events, I know that when you leave the track, it is your full responsibility to rejoin slowly and safely.
Now I know, no driver wants to loose positions, and I have witnessed similar incidents before. Therefore I believe that Vettel could have rejoined differently. Would I have given a penalty? No, but I’d have spoken with him after the race and given him a warning.
As someone who has went off and had a car flip, you’re an absolute madman to think you can control a car with anything more hardcore than street tires once you hit the grass, even with AWD. My Legacy was only going 70mph but once i hit that grass no amount of input killed the momentum, rear end clipped a seperation wall, sent me in a spin and i ended up upside down on the other side of the track. F1 car hitting grass much faster than that on full fat slicks that close to barriers? He’s lucky he didnt end up in the wall with medics rushing to pull him out. I’ve witnessed people on street tires save similar mishaps, but hitting grass on slicks is a whole different ball game from hitting the grass on the same tires my mom uses on her suv. That being said they also tell you in driver’s meetings that anything can happen and to keep your eyes peeled and leave space even while racing aggressively, not mention the fact that every one i’ve been to tells you once someone goes off cut your speed and prepare for anything but dont come to a stop unless told to.
He was fighting an f1 car to stay out of the wall on grass, there’s nothing else he could have really done aside from crashing into Hamilton or the wall
Vettel: switches board around
Me: Outstanding move
Absolute madlad
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get tf away from here T SERIES
GTFO
Would love to see the telemetry on this. Maybe the race officials could see something we can’t.
You know they messed up when Mario Andretti himself calls them out on it.