“It was reported by the technical delegate”– Sebastian Vettel receives a strong reply from the FIA over the time penalty complaint.
Sebastian Vettel receives after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race was critical of FIA imposing a penalty of 10 seconds so late in the race, which apparently affected Vettel’s race result.
Aston Martin was fined for not installing tyres on Vettel’s car five minutes before the race, as per the guidelines. Still, it happened because the Silverstone based team retracted the car to the pitlane due to a brake issue, so it attracted a penalty, but Vettel fumed over its timing.
“Obviously the guys tried everything on the grid and I think they did really well, they were really alert,” Vettel said of the pre-race issue on his Aston Martin AMR21.
“I think we could have had a better race if the FIA was more alert because I think we broke a rule, I guess, that is why we got a penalty, but they didn’t bother until way into the race, so by that time the penalty cost us a lot more than it would have done earlier in the race.
“That is not very professional,” he added.
It was reported, says FIA.
FIA’s race director Michael Masi responded to Vettel by claiming that even if the penalty’s magnitude was informed late, but the violation was reported timely.
“I don’t know about taking longer than it should have. It was obviously reported by the technical delegate. I would have to look at the report but once it was reported by the technical delegate,” said Masi
Then the paper report that he presents and appears in the document management system, it is at that point the stewards look at the regulations, confirm the evidence and what the penalty was.”
