Perez keeps five-place grid penalty for Massa crash after review

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Force India and Sergio Perez have failed in their attempt to get the driver’s five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix overturned.

They had appealed against the ruling made by the stewards of the Canadian Grand Prix following Perez’s collision with Felipe Massa on the last lap of the race.

But following a new hearing today, during which Force India and Williams presented new evidence, the Austrian Grand Prix stewards upheld the ruling of their Montreal counterparts. They ruled that Perez had changed his line in the braking area and bore responsibility for the collision.

The Austrian Grand Prix stewards released the following statement:

Review of Decision of the Stewards of the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix in relation to the collision between cars 11 [Perez] and 19 [Massa].

The stewards of the Austrian Grand Prix were designated by the FIA, in accordance with article 13.10.1 of the International Sporting Code, to decide if new element(s) existed and if so, to review the matter. The new elements were the verbal evidence of the driver of car 11 (and incidentally, also car 19) and the telemetry presented by Sahara Force India F1 Team. Having considered the new elements including hearing from the team representatives and both drivers, and having reviewed all available video evidence and examined both teams’ and the FIA’s telemetry, the stewards decide that the original decision as handed down in document 44 of the Canadian Grand Prix shall stand.

Reason for the decision

The driver of car 11 contended that the new element(s) evidenced that in defending his position he was exercising his right, under article 20.4 of the 2014 Formula One Sporting Regulations, to use the whole track. However it was clear to the stewards that the defence of his position occurred in the braking area. article 20.4 specifically states that any right to defend by using the whole track must occur prior to any braking area. Accordingly the driver of car 11 was not entitled to defend his position in the manner he did.

All parties are reminded of their right of appeal.

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Canadian Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

29 comments on “Perez keeps five-place grid penalty for Massa crash after review”

  1. I don’t know what they expected.

    1. Guess it was worth a try? Or maybe they hoped that the penalty would not have to be served here (expecting to be able to get a solid result here) but at a later time after review?

  2. Well that turned out to be a waste of time. Moving on…

  3. Yeah it was hard to see that going any other way.

    1. So it the stewards looked at it 2 times. Great! Because critics, which were getting annoying with their comments, will be silenced.

      1. @osvaldas31 You only forgot one element in that line of thinking: This is the internet. You’ll see, a couple of years down the road people will still bring this up, I’m sure.

      2. @osvaldas31 I guess you assume things pretty fast.

      3. “Critics…………….will be silenced” Fat chance !

    2. Still consider it a racing incident, but 5 spots on the grid isn’t that much so okay then I suppose …

  4. Massa and Perez are BOTH “incident prone” drivers, and yet neither ever seem to take responsibility for their involvement in these incidents.

    1. Fat Elephant
      20th June 2014, 22:52

      What “responsibility” is there for Massa to take? Unless you mean acknowledging that he was a victim of Perez’s illegal, reckless behavior? Which, btw, the stewards confirmed.

      Massa is an innocent victim of Perez’s deeply unprofessional shenanigans.

  5. Expected result, if a bit unsatisfying. The way I saw the incident, it was just that – a racing incident. Apparently it’s Perez’ fault because he moved in the braking zone. Fair enough, but it sure didn’t seem to be the braking zone to Massa – he said himself he was still going flat out.

    Either way, time to move on (and that goes for Felipe too). And as for Massa not trusting Perez on track – I’m sure that’s mutual… :-)

    1. Perez braked much earlier because he had no rears – his move offline was to defend against that deficiency.

  6. Unbelievable

    1. After Perez retained the penalty after the incident being reviewed for a second time by the Stewards, and with all the evidences provided, I really find it weird why some people still think that it was also Massa’s fault!!

      People can say what they want but I believe that we, as viewers, do not have all the data and do not know all the regulations to decide who was responsible for the incident. in the end, Stewards know better than we do.

      1. @hzh00 I would still take a stand for Perez and it is not because I hate Massa or support Perez more. Though I agree with the telemetry and other information is missing from my analysis. But there is no point in raising the voice, because nothing will change what happened.

  7. Sensible decision. It was a racing incident though, if anything, Perez was slightly more to blame. As I said yesterday, Perez and Massa should move on now, this incident has been drawn out to the nth degree now.

  8. Absolutely the correct decision. From the TV picture during the race it looked like Massa’s fault but from the aerial shot my view quickly changed. Perez needs to start finishing races because that’s two healthy chunk of points that he has cost himself in two races. Up until that point he was having a great season, and now it’s quickly going backwards.

    1. Mr win or lose
      20th June 2014, 19:56

      Pérez didn’t start this season very well, and apart from his podium in Bahrain his performances have not been stellar, but it is a little harsh to blame him for the accidents in Monaco and Canada. On the other hand, Massa has only scored three seventh places with possibly the second-best car due to a complete lack of racecraft.

      1. On more than one occasion he beat Hulkenberg on merit. Monaco was completely avoidable and I don’t need to add anything regarding Canada. His non-start did also cost him points but that was beyond his control.

        With regards to Massa, yes he hasn’t been driving well, but I am unsure how you can claim the Williams is the second best car. To me, Red Bull have the second best package overall, and Williams are in that squabble for fourth, fifth and sixth, with arguably the best car of those three.

        1. Mr win or lose
          21st June 2014, 14:01

          Williams is on pure pace in the same league as Red Bull and usually faster than Ferrari and Force India. Unfortunately, their race-pace is usually not that good. :(

  9. … and now we can turn the page and continue moving ahead.
    But I suspect some folks won’t stop.
    That’s why this website bears the word “Fanatic” in it’s name. I guess we will all argue about this crash for months…

    1. “That’s why this website bears the word “Fanatic” in it’s name.”

      true that! @aldoh

  10. It seems that Force India new evidence were like the one RBR presented in their appeal over Ricciardo disqualification. Glad that Perez was penalized, i just hope that he will learn from it (i’m sure he will not) because his behavior is not getting him anywhere,

    1. This was a driver defending his action.
      After Melbourne FIA was defending it’s policemen.

  11. I still think it was a racing incident, but based on the amount of incidents Perez gets involved with, I guess the penalty is ok.

  12. Good. This was the correct decision in the first place, and the unprofessional ‘arrow’ tweet by force India now looks even more ridiculous.

    1. So the “professional comments” made by Massa was awesome?

Comments are closed.