Aston Martin has confirmed its intention to appeal Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion was robbed of his second place after the race because there was not enough fuel in the car to win the race stewards for the technical inspection.
The official decision read: “Sebastian Vettel was excluded from the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix after his Aston Martin team did not provide enough fuel from their car after the race to comply with the regulations.
“According to the decision of the FIA race stewards, it was not possible to take a 1.0 liter fuel sample from Vettel’s car after the race, but only 0.3 liters could be pumped out of the tank.”
The team announced their intention to appeal the disqualification on Thursday evening and released the following statement.
“After Sebastian Vettel at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday 1st as stipulated in the FIA Formula 1 technical regulations).
“There was and is no indication that Vettel’s Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One 
Team AMR21 car benefited from a performance benefit from the alleged violation or that it was deliberate.
“Since the team data showed that there was more than 1.0 liter of fuel in the car after the race – according to the data, 1.74 liters – the team immediately reserved the right to appeal and applied for a right of review in addition to the appeal process. as a result of the discovery of significant new evidence relevant to the sanction which was not available to it at the time of the FIA commissioners’ decision. “
How does the right of review work?
The right to review is part of the FIA Sporting Code and allows teams to appeal against official decisions, provided they can provide sufficient evidence to justify retrying decisions.
New evidence must be presented in the appeal process and the intention to appeal must be made within 14 days of the original decision.
The evidence presented by the teams must be of a sufficiently high standard to allow the investigation to be reopened and must meet four points that can be considered in the case.
- Is a new element of evidence
- Is significant and relevant to the case / decision in question
- Will be discovered (i.e. not created)
- Was not available to the competitor at the time of the original decision
Should the evidence presented by the complainant reach the required standard and meet these four points, the investigation can be reopened and the sentence will be re-examined by the law enforcement officers.
Has a team successfully lodged an objection and exercised the right to review?
In fact, yes, Red Bull is the last team to win an appeal using the right to review method.
Last season, after qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, the team appealed on the last lap of Lewis Hamilton, which brought him second on the grid for the race.
The Mercedes driver put his time under a yellow flag after Valtteri Bottas left before him, but he was supposed to keep his time after an investigation by the stewards.
Red Bull initiated the right to review and presented a 360-degree camera view of Hamilton’s car that the stewards hadn’t seen before their decision.
The pictures showed Hamilton walking past a yellow flag LED board before arriving at the crime scene, and he was given a three-seat penalty hours before the lights were turned off.
An unsuccessful right to reviews?
Where to start Red Bull also tasted defeat in this situation and only recently. The team’s public outcry following the accident between Max Verstappen and Hamilton at this year’s British Grand Prix resulted in a formal right to review after the team found the Mercedes driver’s 10-second penalty was insufficient.
The team created a presentation that included simulations of the incident and data from Alex Albon, who “simulated” Hamilton’s line in Copse on the day of filming after the race. The case was quickly dismissed because it did not present enough evidence that was not available at the time, rather fabricated evidence that was compiled separately by the team.
Ferrari was also confronted with an embarrassing rejection from race stewards and the case of Vettel and Hamilton. Since the latter put pressure on the first to take the lead at the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix, the then Ferrari driver skidded across the grass at turn four and was punished for having “overcrowded” the Mercedes man when he returned came out on the track.
Hamilton had to pull out of a possible move, but Ferrari argued that it was an extenuating factor for Vettel’s loss of control when he got back on track. Stewards contradicted him and gave him a racing-costly time penalty of 5 seconds. Queue the plays after the race while Vettel reclaimed first place, at least at Parc Ferme, before Ferrari later announced it had appealed and cited compelling evidence that the stewards missed.
Evidence turned out to be Karun Chandhok’s post-race analysis of the incident at Sky Sports F1. Does not fully meet the four-point mandate required to reopen the case. That didn’t stop the team from placing an Italian flag at the gates of Maranello, which means a win.
What is happening now in the Aston Martin case?
The team stated in their statement that, in their opinion, they had enough fuel in the car to provide the 1 liter sample required by the stewards for the technical inspection.
The Hungarian Grand Prix commissioners will meet again to hear the evidence collected by Aston Martin before deciding whether it is substantive enough to warrant a reopening of the investigation into Vettel’s disqualification.
The FIA has confirmed that the hearing will take place on Monday 9 August at 3 p.m. European time.
If Aston Martin’s appointment is successful, Vettel will be reinstated as a P2 finisher at the Hungarian Grand Prix. If the appeal fails, the team will lose the important 18 points it earned with a great ride.
The post Aston Martin wants to put Vettel against the disqualification at the Hungarian GP – what happens next? first appeared on monter-une-startup.
