Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel believes that the Formula 1 penalty rules mean that the drivers are not allowed to race.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has been penalized in each of the last two Formula 1 races for different incidents. In the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard, which took place nearly two weeks ago, he was issued a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas in the first corner of the race.
In the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Racing this past Sunday, the four-time Formula 1 champion was issued a three-position grid penalty for impeding Renault Sport’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in the second of three rounds of qualifying for the race.
This was the case despite the fact that Sainz Jr. still advanced to the third round of qualifying and was unaffected by Vettel’s unintentional move aside competition-wise. The only negative aspect of Vettel’s move was the fact that Sainz Jr. needed to come into the pits to get a new front wing as a result of the fact that his front wing was damaged when he had to take evasive action to avoid hitting Vettel’s car.
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Vettel dropped to 17th place early on in the French Grand Prix since he had to come into the pits to have his damaged front wing replaced as a result of his accident with Bottas, but he rallied back for a fifth place finish. He was named the Driver of the Day for his comeback effort despite the fact that he finished the race two positions lower than he started it.
Vettel qualified in third place for the Austrian Grand Prix, but he was forced to start in sixth thanks to the three-position grid penalty that he was given. He ended up finishing the race in third.
With the last two races being races during which he was penalized in some way, the 33-year-old German has stated that he believes that the Formula 1 penalty rules essentially mean that the drivers are not allowed to race one another.
Here is what Vettel had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.
"“I’ve said I’m not a fan of these penalties, I’ve said as well in the past it’s our own fault as drivers because we sit there on Friday afternoon [in the drivers’ briefing] complaining about the decisions and consistency. Motorsport is not black and white so not every decision can be the same, and I don’t see the necessity to decide every time, but that’s what the sport has become.“Every incident needs to be looked at, and so-called ‘racing incidents’ are not allowed to happen anymore. So we end up with a massive rulebook which could have the header ‘We are not allowed to race’ because that’s sometimes how it feels.“In that situation [in Austria] no-one was hurt, Carlos said it was no problem and he completely understood, so he was very chilled, and it still ended up with a penalty. For me, it sucked on the day, and it will probably suck for someone else at some point in the season, but I just think all these things are unnecessary.“It’s not that you lose your mind or do something crazy because you intend to, but because you try to push the limits and sometimes you might do a mistake. There’s a trend everywhere else that things are being investigated, and I don’t like that word.”"
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Will Formula 1‘s approach to issuing penalties to drivers change in the near future? Will the drivers’ approaches to how they race one another change in the near future to try to protect themselves against being issued penalties?