Formula 1: Do Ferrari have any intention of winning their penalty challenge?

While a successful challenge of Sebastian Vettel’s Canadian Grand Prix penalty would give Ferrari their first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season, do they even have any intention of winning it?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton earned his fifth victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season and delivered Mercedes their seventh victory in the first seven races of the season — by finishing in second place in last Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Race winner Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari was officially scored in second place ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc after a five-second time penalty erased his 1.342-second winning margin over Hamilton in second and turned it into a 3.658-second deficit.

Race stewards deemed that Vettel made an “unsafe” reentry onto the 14-turn, 2.71-mile (4.361-kilometer) Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course on Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on the 70-lap race’s 48th lap after his off-track excursion between turns three and four while leading the race.

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He reentered the track still leading the race ahead of Hamilton in second place, but Hamilton had to take evasive action to avoid making contact with Vettel’s car, which was still somewhat out of control upon rejoining the track after going through the grass. Nevertheless, neither driver gained an advantage over the other and no cars were damaged, but Vettel was issued a penalty anyway.

At first, Ferrari announced their intention to appeal Vettel’s win-stripping penalty before they revealed that they had, in fact, appealed it. However, days later, they revealed that they actually did not appeal it and would instead use “right of review” to challenge it.

On Monday, they confirmed that they had submitted a request to the FIA to review Vettel’s penalty. In order to do so, they needed to supply new evidence that was not available at the time the decision was made to penalize Vettel and effectively ruin his chances of winning the race. No details about the new evidence that they used has been made public.

Given the fact that the Canadian Grand Prix was more than one week ago, it seems as though Ferrari are truly passionate about the matter and they truly believe that Vettel won this race.

However, despite how this appears on the surface, do Ferrari actually have any intention whatsoever of having Vettel be awarded what would be not only his but Ferrari’s first victory of the season?

All things considered, there is a clear-cut answer in this situation, and while it may come as a surprise, this clear-cut answer is no.

Ferrari realize that Mercedes are going to win the constructor championship for the sixth consecutive season and Hamilton is likely going to win the driver championship for the sixth overall season, the fifth time in the last six seasons and the third consecutive season. Clearly this challenge has nothing to do with championship implications.

It certainly could have something to do with the fact that it would end their long win drought. After all, a removal of this penalty would result in their first victory since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2018 United States Grand Prix last October, and it would result in Vettel’s first victory since he won the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix last August.

But even still, it’s hard to believe that there is not an ulterior motive.

First of all, the odds that this penalty actually gets overturned are pretty much nonexistent. Why go through all the hassle for something that is destined to fail?

One reason — the potential for future controversy.

The penalty that robbed Vettel of the Canadian Grand Prix victory ignited a whole new debate about Formula 1’s rule book, including what certain rules actually mean, how they are enforced and perhaps most importantly, how consistently they are enforced.

Yes, Ferrari are running the risk of coming across as sore losers by continuing to pursue the matter over a week after the race stewards decided to penalty Vettel. But that does not change the fact that when this penalty was announced, the overwhelming majority of fans, from Ferrari/Vettel fans to Mercedes/Hamilton fans, and drivers felt that it was a ridiculous call.

If Ferrari’s challenge ultimately fails, which it more than likely will, even with their new evidence, new evidence to add to the old evidence that 99% of Formula 1’s fanbase believe should have vindicated the 31-year-old German to begin with, what better way to add fuel to this rule book debate and possibly bring about change so that moves in question are either considered infractions or not moving forward, eliminating the need for long-drawn-out debates that are never truly resolved?

Ferrari have put themselves in a situation where they win either way. If the penalty gets overturned, they will have earned their first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season already, even if it results in a whole new can of worms being opened down the road for future penalty appeals and/or challenges.

If this penalty is upheld, they will have done what has needed to be done for quite some time and opened up a major can of worms about Formula 1’s rule book. I literally never, ever, ever thought I would say these words after the disastrous way by which the 2019 season began for the team, but this is really a brilliant strategy by the Scuderia.