Ferrari’s Overwhelming Evidence On Vettel’s Penalty Issue Turns Out A Damp Squib

There is always a pause when the jury goes out to consider its verdict. Just that there wasn’t much of a think that FIA required as they produced a clear ‘no’ to Ferrari’s pressing issue; the evidence provided to support their claim that Vettel was innocent and hence, the penalty was unjust!

The last thing that Ferrari ever wanted, post their heart-breaking and much-publicized loss to Mercedes at Montreal, home to the Canadian GP was some embarrassment.

And now, it appears that Ferrari have received a handsome dosage of it, with the results of the appeal against the Vettel penalty being revealed.

So what exactly happened? Well, before we get to it, here’s some background information.

After several theories suggesting that Ferrari- may or may not- complain against the seemingly dramatic penalty handed over to their premier driver Sebastian Vettel at Canada, that resulted in Lewis winning the race with the German holding on to a second, the Italian team finally went ahead and pressed for a rebuttal.

All of this happened at France, currently the host of round eight of the 2019 F1 season, at Paul Ricard.

To their advantage, Ferrari said that a camera fitted to Vettel’s helmet contained precarious details on the racing incident that eventually saw the four-time world champion being penalized with a 5-second penalty.

But in the end, it appears that Lewis Hamilton’s victory stays as it is, unmoved or unbent from its original place with Vettel, continuing to be the second-best to the five-time world champion.

Apparently, what Ferrari felt was ‘sufficient’ evidence wasn’t anything like that and turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment for the sport’s most famous racing marquee.

Before they went officially into protesting against the ‘controversial ruling’ handed by the FIA, Ferrari were bolstered by the confidence they thought would benefit from all possible pieces of evidence they had in their possession. Unfortunately, nothing of that would suffice, in the end.

Here’s a detailed list of the evidence that Ferrari produced to the FIA in their unsuccessful bid to help reverse Vettel’s Canada fortune:

1. Analysis of the telemetry data of [Vettel’s] car, including car attitude channels;
2. A video analysis of the camera views (front view, top view, onboard cameras of [Vettel] and [Hamilton] prepared after the race;
3. A video analysis performed by Karun Chandhok for Sky Sports after the race;
4. A video of [Vettel’s] face camera, which was released by F1 Limited after the race;
5. Post-race and video images;
6. Analysis of the GPS racing line data of both [Hamilton] and [Vettel] in the Situation lap and in the previous race laps; and
7. Witness statement of [Vettel].

But the above told, it so turned out that a large part of the evidence that Ferrari thought would help solidify their claim was nothing but a part of the video analysis done by former F1 driver and current Sky pundit, Karun Chandhok.

Therefore, in a baffling turn of events, the FIA ruled pretty much everything out and a major motorsport publication stated:

Unsurprisingly, both elements were largely dismissed. Of the Chandhok video, the FIA said: “[The video] was new but not significant and relevant as this is a personal opinion by a third party.”

Having said that, the red team were understandably miffed with the ruling with Mattia Binotto sharing the following with the media:

There’s no doubt everyone at Ferrari is unhappy and disappointed, not only for the team but also for the fans and for our sport.

Finally, can Ferrari manage to find a way to ignore the ignominy of a decision that hung them out for a dry by winning the French Grand Prix?