The FIA says it is taking a look at Sebastian Vettel’s daft move against Lewis Hamilton in Baku and will decide on what to do about it in the days ahead.
If the decision is taken to do more to punish Vettel, there is likely to be an FIA International Tribunal called. This body exercises the FIA’s disciplinary powers in the first instance. An International Tribunal judging panel is made up of a selection from 36 judges – with its decisions taken by a simple majority. The hearings are open to the media, as long as there is space available.
The role of prosecutor is exercised by the FIA President, although he can hand that over to the FIA Deputy President for Sport or the FIA Deputy President for Mobility. In this case, it is logical to suggest that the role would go to Graham Stoker, the deputy president for sport, if Todt has other things to do. Vettel would be called to appear before the tribunal, which would hear the various arguments put forward about whether the Ferrari driver deserves a bigger punishment and the judges (a pretty eminent lot) would then rule. If Vettel did not agree with the decision he (or Ferrari) could appeal to the International Court of Appeal.
joeblogsf1 
Isn’t Stoker a Lawyer so well.qualified?
They are all qualified people. On the FIA website you can read the biogs of the judges. They are all sensible people
Hi Joe, I would assume then that they would not handout punishment (if any at all) before the austrian GP.
Would Seb get away with it if he would do a Mexico style “mea culpa”?
I think it will be done pre-Austria, unless there is an appeal
I am pretty sure the FIA stated that they do intend to have it all done before the Austrian GP JJ. Makes sense IMO:
To take the whole episode in context, the radio conversations complaining about how slow the safety car was and how much grip was lost in the tyres should be considered. Still difficult to excuse what happened though.
Joe,
What’s your take on this? Also, do you think Vettels lack of contrition post race has led to this, or that the FIA think either a) Vettels punishment wasn’t fit for purpose and/or b) Hamilton’s actions need to be looked at too?
Personally, I think it’s his lack of contrition, which given his actions and warnings, at Mexico are being taken into account. Very curious to get your opinion.
I think he is hot-headed and has not been slapped down enough in his career
Given the FIA (Todt’s) focus on car safety, I can’t see his actions going unpunished this time. I think his golden boy shine is rubbing off now Bernie’s in the long grass (ok, not so long grass, just not mown for a while).
Thanks.
Well if road safety is the standard now the FIA had better start doing them all for speeding and failure to indicate.
Hey, I think you’re forgetting who Jodt was – the team boss of a certain
M Schumacher, possibly one of the most un-sporting (I’m using modified language here) drivers in the history of the sport! Car safety – don’t make me laugh. Such hypocrisy. Seb’s a Saint by comparison.
If that route is taken by the FIA, how long will it take? I’d not like to see the championships decided by an appeal court next April. Vettel needs a short, sharp shock and have to wear a hair shirt for the rest of the season.
It can be very quick
Joe how long would it usually take for the FIA International Tribunal to meet? Presumably any punishment they might come up with involving one or more race bans would have to be suitably in the future, so should Ferrari chose to appeal it – a meeting of the FIA International Court of Appeal could be held in time? Kinda rules out a race ban for Austria I would think?
I think it will be done quickly
He deserves everything he gets.
The behaviour we saw was unbelievable, unacceptable and out of place in a grands prix.
I’m hoping some kind of message is got out there that this is not what fans want to see from those in the privileged position they are in. Hamilton comes in for some flack for various reasons but you will never see that kind of anger and lack of self control.
“…but you will never see that kind of anger and lack of self control.”
No, Hamilton will exercise great control when intentionally forcing another driver off track at racing speed, risking far more in doing so and never receive so much as a reprimand.
Yet more tosh
> Hamilton will exercise great control when intentionally forcing another driver off track at racing speed … and never receive so much as a reprimand.
To use a football analogy, it’s the difference between fouling on the ball vs fouling off the ball.
You go in studs first on someone with the ball, then at a minimum it’s a free kick, and there’s a risk it’s a yellow card.
If you in studs first on someone without the ball, outside the field of play, as revenge for something that happened earlier, then it’s an instant red-card.
Hence the difference between Lewis forcing someone onto the tarmac run-off during an overtake, and Vettel — under safety-car conditions — using his car as a weapon (he could easily have smashed Lewis’s suspension or turning arm) in revenge for a recent slight.
50+ years of F1 watching in the bag for me. With that understanding, I think your comment is utterly moronic, I wonder if you have actually been watching?
Maybe you just don’t like people of colour? Honestly, I can only think that you have no objectivity at all (sorry for the long word).
Ho hum. I suppose some people are just useless at understanding what’s going on in … anything, Interpretation is just not their thing. A good example of that, would be all the half-wits that believed what Trump said in his election campaign. Gullible. Maybe it’s an art form.
Skin colour? Really? It’s beyond sad that you feel the need to bring skin colour into this.
In the words of Cole Porter… (or Coal as the trolls would say):
In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking.
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.
Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words…
What a waste of energy.
Just move on.
It’s racing.
Such a responsible attitude.
Funny coming from the man that defended Senna using his car as a weapon.
But Senna wasn’t German, was he…
Let me explain something to you. People who fire off accusations of nationalist bias do two things: they insult the person they are accusing because they imply that he/she is not sufficiently smart to be able to overcome nationalism. Secondly, they should that the accuser is not smart enough to be able to grasp the concept that nationalism is a concept only gallen for by the less intelligent.
It is most certainly not racing. I’ve only ever raced karts at club level, but if I had done what Vettel did I would have been excluded from the meeting as an absolute minimum.
It is not racing, it is petulance, and the 10-second penalty was a joke.
And if you were in NASCAR it would be “rubbin’ is racin”. Let’s stick with the actual sporting series involved.
But even in NASCAR, drivers who intentionally run into each other often receive race bans.
The difference is that many (not all, but many) NASCAR fans typically do not expect drivers to be exemplars of moral behavior, nor care a whit about whether they are “responsible”. When a driver deliberately wrecks another to settle a score, the grandstands erupt with cheers, and the fans—and the driver—gladly accept the race ban as a necessary price to be paid for exacting true justice.
Different cultures, to be sure. But since when have people looked to a motor racing sanctioning body to give them moral guidance? What is the point of the FIA campaigning for people to drive safely when it rewards dangerous moves in braking zones at 200 kph?
I don’t think a race ban for Vettel is out of line, but I have difficulty mustering any sanctimony behind it.
I would like to hear one example of a NASCAR driver being banned for intentionally bumping another car.
My point was actually that what happens in other series is irrelevant, especially club racing.
Yes lets stick with the actual sporting series involved. F1. Not Football! Jeez am I sick of the football analogies!
Perhaps you are but it is the perfect analogy
And 3 points. I’ve come to understand how wise the stewards were last Sunday. They had a better perspective.
Sebastian Vettel deserves a race ban for his deliberate side swipe at Baku. When being interviewed after the race the race it was obvious that he was lying ..
“When being interviewed after the race the race it was obvious that he was lying ..” True. Ferrari should hire Dave Ryan for that function
It seems pretty clear cut though, what could he appeal against? Maybe he should be dropped from the FIA’s action for road safety campaign or forced to attend a driver awareness course?
Examples of his unacceptable behaviour have been evident for many years, –
passing his teammate Mark Weber against explicit team orders, his rant in Mexico and the childish sulking when Ferrari were having car problems over the last couple of years. Time he was reined in.
“Examples of his unacceptable behaviour have been evident for many years, –
passing his teammate Mark Weber against explicit team orders,” When Webber didn’t follow team instructions by his own admission it was mark of a true racer, and when Vettel did it that once it is unacceptable and he is not a team player. If only people could keep their personal biases and vendetta out of the door before using evidences that have enough counter evidences 😀
You mention Vettel’s pass in Malaysia. In the same race Rosberg complied with an instruction to stay behind Hamilton, and was promised he’d be rewarded another time. In Hungary the following year Hamilton disobeyed the order to allow Rosberg by. Bottas has moved over in two races already (though without any team orders inquiries in the media as followed Monaco, where, as Joe has explained more than once, it wasn’t even a case of team orders). I doubt if his helpfulness will be returned should the team request it at any point in the future.
I was not comparing Vetel with the rights and wrongs of any other driver, I was simply pointing out three of the many examples of his petulant behaviour. What other drivers do should not be used as an excuse for his actions.
Interesting impact on the points situation (not that its likely to matter by the end of the season). If he is docked the race points it will leave him two ahead in the championship. If they retrospectively disqualify him (can they do that?) it would promote LH up a place and put them on the same points in the championship.
If he is docked his points, won’t all the other drivers that finished 5th downwards get shifted up one place. This would mean that Hamilton would end up with 12 points, and with Vettel originally being 12 points ahead, they would end up both on the same number of points. Erm… interesting …
Does the FIA subscribe to CAS (Court for Arbitration in Sport?), or would a decision be genuinely final?
It would be final I believe
It was entertaining in a Baku filled with little incidents… but I also recognized it was over the top. I expected nothing short of a race ban from the FIA or the Stewards. We can’t have this becoming a regular thing in F1, so a proper punishment should be priority.
What do you make of Jenson Button’s comments that we should let this go and move on Joe? Not what I was expecting from him I must admit.
People have different opinions on everything. That’s fine if that is what Jenson thinks. I don’t agree with him.
Vettel is a professionnal complainer and sometimes I’m really tired to hear his complaints. But for this incident, he had the right to complain.
Hamilton is an hypocrite of the worst kind. Never his fault. He didn’t not brake tested vettel ? But he slowed down so quickly that it produced the same result. He clearly, for me, tried to annoy Vettel and he got it.
The move from Vettel has not to be because that’s a kind of vengence. No place for that in F1 and nowhere else even if it was not at high speed. But he’s been punished for that enough. During that time, the angel Hamilton plays the victim. What a faker…!
Gosh, you don’t like Hamilton do you?
Carl summed that up well.
The FIA made a release saying Hamilton didn’t do anything wrong.
Someone uses a precision instrument to give a measurement and you query his result because it doesn’t tally with your expectations.
And you sir don’t like Vettel as is evident from your tirade against the German.
There is no denying the fact that Vettel should have kept his cool, and reported Hamilton’s erratic driving behind the safety car to the stewards, and let it go. It is a fact that he got next to Hamilton and was waving at him demanding explanation. But there is no proof that he maliciously used his car as a weapon and steered his car into the rivals car, as you and rest of the British media is alluding. How can one steer the car into the car on the side when the hands are busy gesticulating his opponent?
He got a 10 second penalty which resulted him in the race win. He should learn his lesson from that, focus on driving, scoring points and race wins.
Vettel is an Anglophile and remember the George Bernand Shaw quote when it comes to arguing with Hamilton.
It is not a tirade. You should learn what a tirade is. That was simply an analysis. I am sick and tired of people accusing me of being anti Vettel. I am not against him. I think he is a spoilt brat who needs to be punished for a ridiculous act. That is it. I think he’s a very talented driver, but he does not give enough back to the sport and he has some really stupid fans who cannot see beyond the end of their own noses.
You’re mad because Vettel wants a private life? Check out reddit. Vettel is one of the most popular drivers despite not having a social media presence. And you DARE say he hasn’t helped the sport?
I’m not mad but he has a responsibility that he does not fulfil. The fact that fans get excited about him is fine. Imagine what it would be like if he cared about you enough to interact…
The stewards found no fault with Hamilton at all. There was no eratic driving by him. Ricardo and Sainz said pretty much the same thing after the race. So let’s just bury that myth shall we.
That leaves us with Vettel’s actions.
1: A rear end shunt which should be classed as Vettel’s fault and an avoidable collision due to a mistake on Vettels part since Hamilton is blameless.
2. Pulling alongside Hamilton and then sideswiping him. If you think that was not delibrate then really you are insulting Vettel and his driving capabilities and the Ferrari car he was driving at the time for its apparent inability to run in a straight line for a small distance at 50mph. He only used one hand to wave at Hamilton.The other hand was on the steering wheel all the time. Go watch the video if you do not believe me. The action was delibrate.Vettel as much as admitted it in his post race interviews.
3. Overtaking the lead car when under safety car conditions.
For these three separate actions he received a single 10 sec stop and go penalty (typically 30 seconds which was negated by the red flag later) and lost a total of 2 places and 4 championship points. He was 2nd and finished 4th.
Action 2 really should be a black flag all on its own since he delibrately crashed into the other car under safety car conditions.
The punishment does not fit the crime as Joe stated in the other thread.
For the record, I like both drivers, enjoy the rivalry this year but am dissapointed in Vettel and the fact he was not black flagged in Baku for action 2. I think it sets the wrong precedent.
My argument acknowledges the facts, as you clearly state, only that I find retrospective punshiment in the case unacceptable. The FIA have given stewards more leeway, leaving drivers to race wherever possible without silly penalties imposed to spoil the action. We, as fans, want (no, need) action in races with drivers fighting for position to the end. F1 is supposed to be the top level of motorsport, the best drivers battling in the best cars. For this to happen there is a need for a certain flexibility. What Seb did was wrong and maybe he should have been black flagged, but he wasn’t because the stewards obviously decided it wasn’t merited. It should end there, taken on aboard by the FIA and we should all move on. I do not want races results, and championships, decided in committee rooms.
Carl, If you believe the evidence presented to us so far (shots from various angles as well as data), it is obvious that Hamilton did not quickly slow down at all.
Instead, it was Vettel accelerating that made them get close very quickly as seen in Vettels on board camera.
If you don’t believe the evidence, well, then we get into the realm of religion or obsession …
But the onboard telemetry shows vettel decelerating all through the corner. Where was acceleration. Again the fia says something and false info becomes fact .
Where was the acceleration? After the corner, it was obvious visually.
Not sure how many times it needs to be said, but Hamilton didn’t accelerate coming out of the corner, as is his right when leading the safety car line and preparing for a re-start. He didn’t slow down ‘so quickly’ . Again, the FIA is on the opinion that Vettel’s punishment might not be sufficient. Hence why we are going through the process of today’s meeting. It’s really not very hard to understand. It is the Fezzah/Seb fans that are showing their ‘one-eyedness’ in this instance. End of.
Don’t think he deserves more punishment for the offence, but does deserve to be reprimanded for bringing sport into disrepute for not owning up for it and apologising. At least acknowledging the fact what he did was wrong
Nice to see that you can no longer get away with murder just because you drive a Ferrari. Well done! I hope he gets what he deserves. Probably has some long winded excuse just like his recent radio coms.
Vettel has been such a petulant, spoiled brat, it’s about time he be finally be called accountable. The wrist slapping is hopefully in the past. It’s time for a caning.
I’ll give one of Max’s friends a ring, then.
Come on Joe do you really believe in your hearts of hearts the FIA under Todt will ban a driver for an extended period? I don’t . Also can Mr Todt be trusted to be totally impartial towards Ferrari matters given he used to work for them? Should he be allowed to preside in cases involving Ferrari? I’m sceptical about that too.
I think that Todt cannot afford let this slip Stephen Taylor. Especially not after having warned him after Mexico and with everyone being supposed to present the case for road safety.
I too am somewhat sceptical to his will to punish Ferrari. But as Joe highlighted Todt can just delegate the Judging to one of the very competent Deputies. That would serve the purpose of not having to do it himself, but also takes away any fears of his own previous ties to Ferrari (and to an extent his role as top job for road safety contrasting that!) playing a role. That would make a lot of sense
Hi Joe
If Seb were to be handed a ban, does this mean his car is banned as well, or will Ferrari be permitted to run their reserve driver in his absence?
All the best
Gareth
Thye would be able to run another driver. However, the way things are in F1 they would probably load him with all Vettel’s likely penalties to put him in a stronger position.
“However, the way things are in F1 they would probably load him with all Vettel’s likely penalties to put him in a stronger position.” Those are the rules. We saw Mercedes do the same with Hamilton.
Would you, as a team leader, ignore a perfectly legal opportunity?
My driver wouldn’t have done what Vettel did
That you don’t know, Joe
Yes, I do because I would fire a driver who does that.
A team boss would never fire a multiple Champ because of one red mist moment. Especially not when his reaction was provoked. Anyway I’m sure Mr Marchionne will get out a stick and teach Vettel a lesson for throwing away a Grand Prix win and the 13 points that come along with it. At the end of the season it might cost them the Championship.
I’m not a team boss
About time we saw just that happening.
Well said.
I am just confused by anything other than simple agreement with your statement.
I did wonder that might come out of this is that the FIA will introduce another on track penalty something between a 10 second stop go and a black flag?
A good idea. I would favour a straight placing penalty myself.
The problem with pure time penalties in a sport where the race points rewards are based on placing order and not time is that it is so easily negated by many other things that can typically occur in a race such as what occurred in Baku.
Joe I’ve just heard Vettel could have a new teammate next year and it’s not Verstappen/Ricciardo . It’s Fernando Alonso so the rumours say , any truth in that?
I don’t see it
I’d wish it to be true, think Vettel can only just cope with Kimi speed wise, think he’d struggle against Alonso. if you read the book Total competition, Adam and Ross comment that Alonso is the gold standard for drivers, and if all cars were equal, Hamilton and Alonso would win everything, with Vettel getting an occasional look in. Here is two people in the know, giving an unbiased opinion of drivers.
I’m curious as to how you reached the conclusion that Vettel can “only just cope with Kimi speed wise”? It’s as if we’ve been watching completely different races for three seasons.
I’m guessing I’m watching the same one as James Allen, as he says the same thing, and he seems to know a thing or two, but hey what do I know. He certainly hasn’t buried Kimi, in the way Alonso did.
You would need to give Kimi a car that he can work with first, otherwise it is a waste of a season.
Give him the 2016 and 17 cars, and Kimi will own Vettel on occassion. Maybe at several races, team permitting.
Kimi could not work with the 2015 car, that much was obvious. Alonso, and frankly any vaguely competent PS4 racer, had an open goal in the inter-team stakes.
I think a sensible outcome would be to exclude Vettel from Baku and dock his points accordingly. It sends out the message that such petulance will not be tolerated and it closes up the championship without the FIA being at risk of being accused of ‘interfering’ with it to a large degree, as Hamilton didn’t score well in Baku so won’t be seen to be being gifted a large points haul. Also, by letting him race at Silverstone, he’ll no doubt be given a unique welcome by the crowd.
I was absolutely gobsmacked at Vettel’s interviews post race. The sheer arrogance in the way he point blank ignored any question about his driving in the second collision with Hamilton beggared belief.
Chris, I think this would be a very sensible approach. I fear that the FIA want more blood though!
The black flag is so rarely used but I see no reason why it wasn’t deployed here.
It was shocking that Vettel was allowed to take the restart after the race was red-flagged when he was seemingly in a less than sound state of mind to be open-wheeled racing next to guys at over 300 km/h. Reckless on the part of the stewards who also ought to have known better.
One angle I have not seen mentioned yet in the huge response to Sunday’s incident is the potential that Vettel may have even intentionally turned into Hamilton in an effort to create damage. Think about the predicament he found himself in after running into the rear of Lewis. Vettel, through his own inattention, suffered a broken front wing. He likely instinctively immediately realised that he had to pit to have it replaced. This at the commencement of a safety car restart would have left him last. Vettel is not lacking in intellect and his wit, diligence and quick thinking have led to his widespread popularity through the paddock. However his mentality is certainly not without fauly and it is worth considering that he may have deliberately taken the side-swipe in an effort to damage Hamilton’s car as per Schumacher on Hill in Adelaide ’94.
I am unsure whether that would be better or worse than if his actions were the result of an uncalculated fit of rage. Either way it is not behaviour that should be tolerated at this level and certainly not from a 4x world champ on a warning for effing and blinding the race director a few months earlier..
Joe,any ideas of the take of the German motor sport press on this.I am no great fan of Vettel and his past history tells us so much (ask mark Webber) I just wonder if this blog is a bit Anglo centric (Lewis is no angel!) I tend to go along with JB’s thoughts .I am British and have followed F1 since Stirling was a lad and at the moment am a great fan of Max.
I have lived in France for 25 years and I’m supposed to be Anglo centric…
Well Antony Ward, my Brother lives in Berlin and he tells me that a good part of the German press is not liking Vettels behaviour and the penalty at all either. Remember, Mercedes is also a German brand! And Vettel is no Schumacher either for general popularity.
It is not going to be like the Spanish Inquisition! They are not goinng to show him the instruments of torture to make him recant his sins though he will probably have to be seen to apologise of his own free will! I cannot see the FIA imposing more than token punishment on Vettel. They might take his Baku points but I do not believe they have the courage or the will to do much more. It will probably be another ‘final’ warning. They are not going to upset their Liberty paymasters too much by greatly reducing the chances of a close championship. It will just be a bit of huffing and puffing I expect.
One race suspended ban…that’s what I’d put my money on.
That is no punishment
I did wonder if they’d go that route, but as Joe said, its not a punishment. Also that’s kind where is he at the moment, with points on his license, so it wouldn’t change his situation.
Maybe the punishment was light, but it was applied and served. This should be case closed and a lesson to consider for future events, but not re-litigated. Seems like double-jeopard to me at this point.
There have been numerous posts and commentators who have categorized the current punishment as suitable given the consequences of Vettels actions were minimal. And others who have pointed out that the punishment seems lenient due to Hamiltons own issue during the race. But if you simply categorize the incident, its severity becomes clear.
Under yellow flag, safety car conditions, Vettel caused an avoidable collision when he ran into the back of Hamilton. Following this he then deliberately caused a second collision a few seconds later. The FIA do not even issue guidance on the second scenario of deliberate collisions because it’s so extraordinary.
This isn’t a racing incident and shouldn’t be treated as such, so any comparisons with Hamilton being uncompromising whilst racing are frankly baffling. I believe at the point of these collisions, HAM is essentially acting as the safety car as the light on the Actual safety car had gone out and he was pootling off to the pits. If Vettel is in first and he hits the safety car because he misjudged it, and then runs alongside it and gives it a clip because he’s angry about how it’s driven then I don’t think it would be about a ban, I think we would be asking how long.
The FIA are absolutely correct to seek answers as to the behavior of Vettel considering his previous warning and I would be surprised if there was any reasonable explanation or level of contrition which would escape him from further punishment this time. I think that the FIA will also come down hard so I’d expect him to be disqualified from BAKU and banned from AUSTRIA.
He would’ve actually benefitted from being black flagged in BAKU because the whole thing would be seen as done and dusted, bizarrely, being allowed to continue has probably left him open to a more severe punishment as the race stewards considered the incident in isolation and the tribunal will review his previous actions again.
excellent post +1
Seconded!
Don’t you think that he was punished enough I have to say that I think there should be a safety gap of so many seconds between the safety car and the f1 car the very first safety car might have actually cost Aryton Senna is life. And also to add we have these things in a virtual safety car keeping a gap or speed why not in a real safety car.
I completely agree that Vettel could have done with a black flag. It is also de factoo that he suffers from a bad case of the Red-Mist. I am no fan of “The Finger”, nor the “Blue Flag”, nor the “here is a message for Charlie…”… Nor am 1 a fan of M. Schumacher or even Senna, for their overly non-sportsmanlike actions.
Why is the FIA trying to (re-)investigate the driver rather than investigate the decision making process of the stewards of the race? This year the FIA insinuated that the stewards should be more lenient.
Everyone seems to agree that the intentional contact by Vettel was wrong. But the FIA is objecting to the decision (and the decision process). Why drag the driver in to that discussion?
I have always thought that the duty of a tribunal to be to judge the offense and not the outcome. MSC can drive in to Hill in 1994 and win but MSC can drive in to Jacques in 1997 and loose all season points. The FIA should not be evaluating the outcome (10 second stop and go) but rather how the stewards came to that decision.
The decision was made and the FIA needs to deal with it in such a way that, in the future it does not happen again.
Cheers, Hesketh forever!
Re: his antics,
Maybe the exact of social media is comfortable with incessant and thoughtless gesticulating and exclamation, but it is not the image of a histrionic infant which I think is what I want to see in the cockpit of the car bearing any brand of mine.
The team has made its bed, for now. But the idea I’m my mind is that I would be inclined to suspend him, pending the tribunal, were I team manager.
The reason I would do so, is to find out what the public reaction is to suspending him.
That’s a very valuable piece of information I think should have been collected by Ferrari in consideration for their own image.
I only race Karts at the most basic level, and for the first time in 5 years on Wednesday, and there were a few yellows, as this it this level, and someone just drove into me cause they thought I was going to overtake them under yellow (I wasn’t) and he got an instant black flag. You just can’t drive into people.
Calling Vettels collision “deliberate” still is an unsubstantiated claim as we still have no stringent evidence for it. You may continue to brush it aside; but the International Tribunal may be an indipendent FIA body, being a “tribunal” it has to obey the principles of the HRC as much as the others do. E.g. the axiomatic “nulla poena sine culpa”. And if they cannot prove Vettel did it deliberate the case will be closed, as we read on the FIA homepage, ”
“The International Tribunal (IT) exercises the FIA’s disciplinary powers in the first instance (for cases not dealt with by the Stewards of the Meeting).”
So, the penalty of Baku seems to be a closed case, there is no reneging, they only could rely on 151c, but not without proven deliberate act. Furthermore, Vettel cannot be banned for a race as he has only 9 penalty points on his belt inkluding the 3 the stewards gave him at Baku.
Furthermore, as all parties have to be heard, for sure the Scuderia Ferrari will claim the entire radio communication between Hamilton and the team, to assess the causality between the knowledge of Vettels 9 penalty points and Hamiltons jamming during SC.
Yawn. The FIA International Tribunal will do as it sees fit.
Hi Joe, I consider that besides the stewards CV they did a very lousy job on Vettel’s episode and they should be punished, and maybe including Whiting. By saying they didn’t want to influence on the championship they have to acknowledge they did. Don’t you think so? Cheers.
Charlie does not make the decisions.
Thanks for your timely response and the Whiting remark. Then, Should Gutjahr (who said they didn’t want to interfere in the championship), Sullivan, Shukurov and Spano be punished? I hope yes. Cheers.
No, I don’t think so. Judges make mistakes and other judges correct them. Hopefully they learn from them.