Horner baffled by Ferrari’s decision to continue Vettel appeal

2016 Mexican Grand Prix

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Christian Horner says Ferrari’s decision to appeal against the outcome of yesterday’s hearing into Sebastian Vettel’s Mexican Grand Prix penalty is a “waste of time”

A teleconference of the Mexican Grand Prix stewards yesterday ruled Ferrari had not provided any new evidence regarding Vettel’s incident with Daniel Ricciardo which led to the penalty. They also rejected Ferrari’s claim race director Charlie Whiting should have intervened on a prior incident involving Max Verstappen during the race.

FIA rejects Ferrari petition over Vettel penalty
Ferrari has now notified the FIA it will appeal its decision to reject their request that the incident be reviewed.

“The situation gets more and more bizarre,” Horner told the BBC.

“Obviously we sat through a hearing yesterday where new evidence was presented which was nothing new. And the stewards once again came up with a verdict.”

“Of course it is with in the process the right of Ferrari to appeal. It just seems a bit of a waste of time and unless there’s something significant that wasn’t presented yesterday I really can’t understand the logic.”

Horner criticised Ferrari for continuing to pursue their protest despite their defeat yesterday.

“That’s probably more of a question for Ferrari than it is for me. I think the worrying thing about this process is what if we come forward with some new evidence about Lewis [Hamilton] going straight on at Monaco? Maybe a couple of fans there saw something, come forward with a bit of new evidence and then suddenly that result could be under scrutiny.”

“You could do that with any race at any point this season. It just seems a bizarre situation that the stewards have shut the book on the race, rightly so, you have to accept the verdict, we did with Max and that’s it, you move on, you focus on the next one. So to be dragging over and over it I don’t understand.”

2016 Mexican Grand Prix

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    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...

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    21 comments on “Horner baffled by Ferrari’s decision to continue Vettel appeal”

    1. I’m calling it – Ferrari have lost the plot.

      1. Haven’t lost the the plot. Its politics, they’re up to something.

        1. Ferrari probably want to grind the race officials/stewards through the entire appeals process to ensure the officials know the pain they’ll face in case of future unfair or unfavourable calls.

      2. Ferrari is probably both genuinely convinced that they’re right, and they’re using the system to its full extent. And why not? Money is unlikely to be a problem for them, and it might help set a precedence both in terms of what on-track action is allowed and that penalizing Ferrari could be a hassle not worth going through for the FIA.

    2. This is a sign of italian desperation. They dont know how to handle the situation they are in.

      1. Sign RedBull cheated to achieve a 3 4 instead of 4 5. They should drag this out. Red Bull should be dragged into it. About time Ferrari got more powerful off track and hurt RedBull, could of destroyed them last year but Renault gave them engines again, will be great if they can attack RedBull drvers and team and wh Renault get better they might cut Red Bull and rightfully remove them from F1.

    3. It is still correct that Max had 3 laps to give up the place isn’t it?

      If so being less that 3 laps until the end its looked at after, no change there.

      This is the catalyst to the whole thing, Ferrari know they will lose this one but flexing some political muscle, no big deal they are just playing the game.

      Martin Brundle may say “A day late and a dollar short”

      1. @evilhomer He has to give up the place if there’s an actual instruction from the stewards to do so. There wasn’t. In fact, the decision wasn’t made until right before the podium ceremony.

      2. @evilhomer

        It is still correct that Max had 3 laps to give up the place isn’t it?

        As the radio transcript shows Verstappen wasn’t definitively told by Red Bull to let Vettel through, so I don’t see how this could apply.

    4. Ferrari must be trying to use their Vettel power…er…veto power.

    5. I can’t blame them for wasting the FIA’s and other teams time considering they sure liked to take their time to make the decision in the first place. The FIA stewarding process is a joke anyway, might as well have a laugh at their expense.

    6. Was a waste of time, but there is one thing that needs looking at.

      I’m not overly keen on the revelation this whole situation has highlighted – that it’s possible for a driver to clearly and obviously break the rules to retain his position, then back the aggrieved driver up to present his team-mate with the opportunity to overtake.

      It’s easy enough to ignore that this time, but imagine the crapstorm it would have created had Ricciardo and Vettel been fighting for the title…

    7. :) This is exactly what they should do. Total War!

      3rd to 5th… that is a lot of points.

    8. You’d think there is someone insane within Ferrari…
      Like everyone got so frustrated from overachieving last year and having sky high expectations for 2016 and then losing out time and time again, I’m pretty sure that made them lose the plot. People have been ridiculing McLaren for years for underachieving, but they keep their problems relatively to themselves, whereas Ferrari makes noise for everything everytime in childish desperation, because they are “”special””.

      1. @hunocsi But that is McLaren in Britain and this is Ferrari in Italy. Unless they make a massive fuss, it will seem like they are not trying hard enough.

        1. McLaren just te everyone they are going to be brilliant then fl flat on their faces.

    9. I actually agree with Chris Horner, it is time to move on, but this incident does leave one with a bitter taste in one’s mouth and that somehow there was an injustice, that somehow there was something not quite right with the final result of the race. There are questions like “If Vettel hadn’t stayed within 5 seconds of Verstappen would Ricciardo have lost control of his car and crashed into him?” or “If Vettel had stayed on the racing line would he have lost 5 seconds of time dealing with the collision with Ricciardo and would he have still received a penalty for it?”
      As it is, history will record Ricciardo as being third because he lost control of his car, Verstappen got fourth because he took a short cut across the grass, that Red Bull got paid for 3rd and 4th place at the end of the season payout, which is about as good as you can expect when your two drivers drove with less than the expected level of skill required in F1, and that Ferrari got paid for 5th because their driver who showed better skill, judgment, determination, and foresight than the two drivers ahead of him.
      Yes, time to move on.

      1. I have just watched a Youtube video of this incident, and I have now decided that I agree with Ferrari’s decision to appeal Vettel’s 5th place in the Mexican GP. Charlie Whiting and the stewards should hang their heads in shame. Horner’s drivers behaved in a disgraceful manner and should have been Black Flagged. If he had any decency then he would apply to the FIA to have the places his drivers received removed from the record and forfeit any prize money related to this race.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6nf2UzCAAo

    10. I think that Ferrari think they are right because they are clutching at straws. This is not good for their dignity, or their chances of getting much of anything done in 2016. (And no, I don’t think Ferrari is going to get their place back either. Verstappen’s loss of 3rd might be retrievable due to the bizarre method used to issue the penalty, but Ferrari doesn’t exactly gain anything from that!)

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