Data will determine whether Aston Martin protest Vettel’s disqualification

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In the round-up: Aston Martin are weighing up whether to formally appeal against Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In brief

Aston Martin mulls Vettel appeal

Following Vettel’s disqualification on Sunday, for producing an insufficient post-race fuel sample, Aston Martin served notification of their intention to appeal. From that point they have four days to submit one.

“Since we had reason to believe that there was more than one litre of fuel in Sebastian Vettel’s car after the Hungarian Grand Prix, we decided to reserve our right to appeal,” a team spokesperson explained. “[This] decision was communicated publicly by the FIA late the same Sunday night, in accordance with their standard procedures.

“We are now analysing data in order to decide whether to appeal or not, using the 96-hour ‘window’ that the FIA allocates for such deliberations.”

Mazepin expects “long career in Formula 1”

Nikita Mazepin says his frustration at being taken out of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix was eased by the expectation he is at the beginning of a long career in the sport.

The Haas driver was hit by Kimi Raikkonen in the pits when most of the field pitted before the race restart. Raikkonen was penalised for the collision, which put Mazepin out of the race.

“It’s just really annoying,” said Mazepin. “That’s one race I really wanted to be in, and not only for me, but I think this race offered a lot of opportunities and my team does really need those opportunities.

“It’s just unfortunate that other teams make mistakes and send cars out. I mean, it was obvious that I needed to double stack, I’m not able and not allowed to stay in the pit lane to hold people up. So I need to go somewhere. And I was willing to go to my box. I could not have turned in any later. And the Alfa just came out and took my tyre off.”

The eventful race “could have been” a points-scoring opportunity, said Mazepin, “but it’s not going to be.”

“But I strongly believe that I’ve got a long career in Formula 1,” he continued. “That’s seriously not the way I wanted to go into the summer break because you just want to give it your all, at least leave this weekend tired and with a sore body and a sore neck, but just lack of laps and a lack of result is very fucking annoying.”

British F3 “forced” to change name

The series previously known as British F3 has rebranded itself with immediate effect as GB3. Championship promoter MSV said it was “very disappointed that it has been forced into the change, having done everything possible to preserve the historically significant British F3 title.”

The change has come about at the instigation of the FIA, it claimed. “Changing to the new GB3 name is purely a consequence of the FIA’s decision to limit the use of the F3 title exclusively for the international FIA F3 series, as a result of which national governing bodies are not able to grant permits for national level single-seater championships using the F3 brand.”

In its current form, the series served as a stepping stone for George Russell and Lando Norris to enter Formula 1. In its previous guise Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Mika Hakkinen and other future F1 champions raced in British F3.

“I am extremely saddened by the fact that we are no longer permitted to use British F3 name,” said MSV chief executive and former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer. “Having existed over half a century, the British F3 title has enormous heritage and the championship has played an important role in the careers of many F1 drivers, including my own. The strength of our championship is however built upon much more than just a name and that will be reflected in its ongoing success.”

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Comment of the day

Is Christian Horner’s claim Max Verstappen’s damage left him with less downforce than Mick Schumacher literally true?

This is taking away from what was quite a fine defensive drive by Mick, especially since he’s not had may opportunities to go wheel to wheel this year.

I guess it’s possible that Max had a more unbalanced car because of the damage, but less total downforce? I’m pretty sure that’s untrue since he pulled away at 1.5 seconds a lap after passing Schumacher.
@Wsrgo

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On this day in motorsport

  • 35 years ago today Bertrand Gachot dominated a rain-lashed Snetterton round of the British Formula Ford 2000 championship to win ahead of Mark Blundell

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21 comments on “Data will determine whether Aston Martin protest Vettel’s disqualification”

  1. Haas should replace Mazepin over the break.

    So much for that “long career”.

  2. The procedure for extracting a fuel sample has been in place with no issues for a long time, so I’d be surprised if Aston actually proceed with the appeal.

    Just one of those unfortunate things.

    1. What part of the fuel monitoring system is provided by the FIA? I remember a few years ago that teams had their own monitoring system which were not always accurate in showing maximum fiel use at any one time. If the monitoring system that showed 1.4 litres left is provided by the FIA, Aston Martin would presumably have a good case.

    2. @dbradock Plus one doesn’t even question FIA’s decisions. The organization has a long history of taking that very badly. In the old days you would even be hit with a bigger penalty just for doing that.

  3. Really disappointing that British F3 can’t keep the name and the history that goes with it. I guess had they not technically folded and started afresh, then they may have had more of a leg to stand on in this disagreement.

    It’s kinda dumb that we have “International F3”, but no national level F3. Makes the use of the word International a bit redundant.

    GB3 makes sense, but its easy to misread it as GP3.

    1. I think they use an F4-spec car as well, @eurobrun, which probably doesn’t help their argument.

      However it sounds like the FIA are preventing the use of the F3 name at all, which is a shame. Many of the national F3 series – not just British F3 – have produced stars in the past.

  4. Re the COTD, I tend to agree with Horner actually despite his love of hyperbole. The barge boards are so intricate and are such a huge contributor to the overall downforce produced by the car that not having the entire left hand side bargeboard would have reduced the amount of downforce produced by the car massively.

    1. but it still had more downforce than a HAAS f1 car even with damage.

    2. F1oSaurus (@)
      3rd August 2021, 18:23

      @geemac Horner is pretending that Schumacher had the better car, yet Verstappen pulled a 10 second gap in 5 or 6 laps after passing Schumacher. So it really isn’t anything but hyperbole again.

  5. RandomMallard (@)
    3rd August 2021, 8:13

    Re (not) British F3: That’s a real shame.

    Re Tsunoda: wow. Goes to show just how chaotic that race was that they didn’t even show his spin on the broadcast (I don’t remember it at least).

    Re COTD: No doubt Mich drove brilliantly. But its remarkable Verstppen’s car would even turn considering the damage it had.

    1. the fact that it turned, and very well after damage shows how much downforce the entire package has. It is currently the fastest car on the grid.

      1. Let me take a wild guess that the reason Red Bull were slower, and Mercedes faster for most of the weekend was due to the drivers? :D

    2. @randommallard His spin indeed didn’t get broadcasted, so I was unaware until post-race.

  6. Re Mazepin: Or short? Or slow?
    Re British F3: Don’t like that new name at all…
    Re Pourchaire: Good for him!
    Re Piastri: Good for him too.

  7. I am not a number, I am Sebastian Vettel. And dayum right Aston Martin.

    https://twitter.com/ScuderiaFerrari/status/1421928275115495431

  8. Personally I agree with the change of name of British F3. British F3 implies theres a British F1, with Gp3 and Gp2 being rebranded it all makes perfect sense to make the ladder more simple

    1. but British F3 was around when FIA F3 was called GP3. only recently FIA went to F3 and now banning others from using.

      1. I hear you but thats also my point, one thing was one thing then there was another thing and the ladder gets confusing. F3000,F3, 3,5 GP3. It’s just simpler if international holds the jewels and the local series have other names, didn’t GP2 and old F2 run simultaneously for example?

  9. wasn’t the British F3 where James Hunt and Niki Lauda first competed together?

    1. @alfa145 Hunt competed in British F3 in his early career, but Lauda didn’t.

  10. I don’t think that Aston Martin will go forward with an appeal. They were given multiple opportunities to withdraw the specified amount of fuel and could not. Even if something is found in the data that says “per the FIA sensors, only “x” liters of fuel were used”, that will not be useful in an appeal. I’m sure the FIA has not certified their sensors as a “fuel gauge”. And Aston Martin’s assertions as to the amount of fuel they put into the car (“and then we only used so many liters”) won’t be something that the Stewards/FIA will accept. I’m sure they filed their intent to appeal just in order not to lose the right to do so should something truly dramatic be found, which I doubt to be the case.

Comments are closed.