Jun.14 (GMM) Ferrari will not appeal Sebastian Vettel’s Canada GP time penalty, but the Italian team is looking into another way to re-claim the race win.
“We have withdrawn our intention to appeal and are evaluating the right of review,” a spokesperson for the Maranello outfit declared.
It is believed Ferrari came to the conclusion that the traditional appeal process would fail.
But another article of the sporting regulations allows for a ‘review’ of the stewards’ decision if new evidence comes to light.
According to sources, this new evidence could be video or telemetry data that the original stewards would then need to review in a reconvened panel.
“I doubt that there is this new evidence,” Ernst Hausleitner, the commentator for Austrian broadcaster ORF, said.
Grand Prix Drivers’ Association president Alex Wurz agrees: “Anyone who believes the penalty was unjustified is wrong.”
The fault in the system, Wurz claims, is the overregulation of Formula 1.
“We want rules for everything and anything, and that’s where we have arrived,” said the former F1 driver.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, thinks Ferrari’s strategy of pushing for a review is misguided.
“You cannot undo the penalty,” he told Osterreich newspaper.
“The worst case would be that the stewards, after looking at the data, find that a bigger penalty is needed.
“I talked to Mattia Binotto and he thinks that would happened is not worth a 100 per cent penalty. I think he is 100 per cent wrong.
“The fact is that Vettel went off the track, looked in the mirror and pushed Lewis towards the wall. If Lewis had not braked, the two would have collided. That’s why there is the penalty.
“Ok, it’s controversial,” Wolff added. “But in our sport you do not take prisoners.”
La Gazzetta dello Sport claims that Ferrari has until the French GP weekend to establish the case for a review.