F1 Today – 13/06/2019
Ferrari pushes review of the penalty
Ferrari has dismissed reports decided not to appeal against Sebastian Vettel’s penalty which cost him victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. The team has said they are ‘still working on putting together evidence’ over the incident.
Although time penalties aren’t technically allowed to be appealed, the sporting regulations can be overridden by the International Sporting Code permits a ‘right of review’ over track incidents if ‘new evidence’ can be presented.
Any bespoke ‘appeal’ had to be formally lodged with the FIA by Thursday, but the Press Association reports Ferrari has now told F1’s governing body they won’t be going ahead with that process. But the manufacturer is not confirming that.
Ferrari may, however, submit a right of review, giving itself fourteen days to submit new evidence that was not available at the time.
Vettel’s five-second penalty for forcing Lewis Hamilton off the track in Montreal cost him the victory, led to heated post-race antics and has sparked huge debate over rules in the sport.
F1 not the sport I fell in love with – Vettel
Sebastian Vettel says he doesn’t like that Formula One has become a different sport to the one he fell in love with growing up, after expressing his frustration at the way that penalties have taken over the racing.
The German was disappointed after being awarded a five-second penalty after re-joining unsafely and impeding Lewis Hamilton in the Canadian Grand Prix. Following the race, Vettel told the media that ‘lawyer talk’ had taken over the sport, a world away from how he wished things were.
He told Motorsport.com, “I really love the old races, the old car and old drivers. I really love that, but I just wish I, as good as I am doing what I do, was in their time rather than today.”
“You just hear the wording when people come on the radio, we sort of have an official language. We should be able to say what we think. I disagree with where the sport is now.”
“You have all this wording, ‘I gained an advantage, I didn’t gain an advantage’. All this I think is wrong. It is not really what we should be doing in the car.”
Vettel believes that the fans would view the incident as nothing more than just a racing incident rather than anything that needed a penalty, insisting that he did not deliberately cut across in front of Hamilton as he rejoined the track, having run wide after making a mistake.
Adding “I was coming back on track and trying to make sure I had the car under control. Once I regained control and made sure it was alright, I saw in the mirrors that Lewis was right behind me.”
He believes that he couldn’t have done anything differently, as his focus was keeping the car under control.
FIA needs to stick with principles of 2021 regulations
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl believes that the FIA must stick with the principles of the 2021 regulations even if a delay in their publication allows time for changes.
The regulations were due to be ratified today by the World Motor Sport Council this month, the FIA and Liberty Media have asked the teams to approve a delay until October. However, not all have agreed to the extension, including McLaren, whom it is understood to have expressed reservations about the wording of the original version.
The matter will now be addressed in a meeting in Paris on Thursday, ahead of the main WMSC gathering. Renault has expressed its concerns that the new deadline could allow wholesale changes to the proposed regulations to be pushed through, and McLaren shares that view.
Seidl told Motorsport.com, “We see the same risk. But on the other hand, we trust the FIA and Liberty, that they know what they are doing, and know what is good for the sport in the future. Some principles have been agreed.”
We don’t have final regulations, we just hope that it all stays like that, which is in our opinion the right thing. I think we have to see now what the outcome is. In the end, it doesn’t make a huge difference.”
“The main thing for us is that the principles that have been set out stay in place. That’s our priority, to be honest.” Seidl added that McLaren is happy to wait for final details of the rules before committing to a 2021 R&D programme.
He says there is fine-tuning needing doing and it doesn’t really make sense to put resources on now for development.
F1 needs a dictator to sort rules – Verstappen
Max Verstappen says that F1 needs a dictator to sort rules out properly because there is too much self-interest from teams. The deadline for agreeing to the 2021 regulations has been extended until October after teams, Liberty and the FIA to agree.
But the Dutchman believes it’s a mistake allowing the teams to have too much of a say in what happens. Asked by Motorsport.com, about the likelihood of 2021’s change is not so great as originally hoped for, he said, “You know what it is, everyone’s talking for themselves.”
“Mercedes is of course very happy with these regulations. In their view little needs to be changed. And teams who are not doing so well at the moment, they, of course, want different regulations, but then maybe they have a smaller say in this.
“If you have a Ferrari engine as a customer team, you are with Ferrari, and if you are a customer team at Mercedes, then you are with Mercedes.” Verstappen also says the sport must commit to stable regulations rather than constantly trying to change things to close the field up or stop one team dominating.
He says that the thing with any change is that one team will always do better than another, and by leaving them alone everyone catch up. Verstappen says rules left alone for ten years creates the opportunities for things to close up.
Verstappen thinks that the most important things that need changing are tyre characteristics and the way downforce is currently generated.
He added, “The big problem we have as drivers is that we can’t push when we’re behind someone because the tyres get overheated, and you can’t follow each other because there’s too much downforce loss.”
Bottas not feeling the pressure
Valtteri Bottas insists that he is not feeling the pressure of the title fight with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, despite falling twenty-nine points behind the five times champion.
Despite his strong start to the season the Finn appears as if he has lost momentum in the last two races, he was a victim of a pit-lane clash with Max Verstappen in Monaco, relegating him to third, before a poor weekend in Canada saw him qualify sixth (after a spin in Q3) and finish fourth. Hamilton duly won on both occasions.
Following his victory in Baku, he had a one-point lead over his teammate Hamilton, but now three races later he has fallen more than a race win behind. Speaking to ESPN, following Montreal, he said “I can’t really afford many of these type of weekends if I want to fight for the title.”
“I have to move on. Maybe it was a bit of a wake-up call again. I’m sure I can always learn from that. For me, thoughts are already on the French Grand Prix.”
This season, Bottas has regularly of the mental challenge needed to beat five-time world champion Hamilton to the 2019 crown and remains fully confident in his ability to do so. Saying “No, I have no pressure. I am very happy about the situation and how everything’s been going since the beginning of the year.”
“I’m enjoying it. I made one mistake [in qualifying]. Maybe at the end, I was trying too much to recover that. That can happen.” He insisted that the last few races were nothing to do with pressure.
Grosjean confronts robbers
Romain Grosjean’s wife Marion has hailed her husband as a hero for confronting robbers to “protect his family” during a burglary at their home earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the French broadcaster and former F1 presenter revealed that their home had been targeted by burglars on Monday night. Her husband had returned home by that point after competing in last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Grosjean, a 10-time F1 podium finisher, allegedly took action. Mrs Grosjean took to Instagram sharing a share a photo of a broken window that she said was “the one through which burglars broke into our home last night.”
“Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and our children will actually never know of the fright we had, thanks to @grosjeanromain who didn’t hesitate to jump towards them in order to stand in their way and protect his family.”
Mrs Grosjean missed the race in Montreal, where her husband had a frustrating weekend qualifying and finishing fourteenth, after collecting parts thrown up from a first-corner collision between other cars at the start.
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