Lewis Hamilton believes the decision not to penalise Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver deliberately drove into him at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has demonstrated a lack of fibre from Formula One’s governing body.
The Mercedes driver said the FIA president, Jean Todt, needed to explain the reasoning behind the conclusion not to punish Vettel and the message it sent out was detrimental to the sport. The former world champion Nigel Mansell, however, believes the FIA handled it correctly.
Vettel drove into Hamilton in Baku and faced an FIA investigation on Monday. He admitted he was at fault and has made a public apology and a personal one to Hamilton. The FIA investigation accepted this and opted to take no further action.
Vettel repeated his admission and apology at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday. “I’m not proud of the moment. Can I take it back? No. Do I regret it? Yes,” he said. “If I could go back and take it away I would do that but I can’t. I said I never had the intention to hurt him, like punch him or anything, it wasn’t to hurt him or damage his car, it was at low speed but looking back it was dangerous.”
Mansell, the 1992 world champion, said: “Between Seb and Lewis there are seven world championships. If they can’t respect one another and sort it out between themselves it is a very sad day.
“The FIA did exactly the right thing, they have gathered all the information and investigated. This helps now with any future incidents and I am sure if any other drivers want to behave in such a way again the outcome would probably be very different. It is a warning to everybody.
“There is no question that Seb was out of order but was there any malice? Was it a high-speed incident? Did anyone end up in the wall? He made a misjudgment, there was a rub of wheels, of tyres. In a perfect world it should never have happened but it did. The FIA have made their decision and everyone should respect that for the right reasons.”
After the race Hamilton described the incident as a disgrace and pointedly drew attention to the example it set. “There are kids watching us on TV. You think a multi-time world champion would behave better than that,” he said. “I really hope that kids don’t see that and think that is the right way.”
Hamilton had accepted the apology and both drivers stressed they wanted to move on when they spoke before Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix but the Briton remained unhappy with how it has been dealt with by the FIA. He was critical of the ruling and the example it set. “I don’t think it changes so my opinion stays the same,” he said. “With all due respect, Jean [Todt] should be here to answer some questions. They didn’t change anything on the Monday so the message sent remains the same.”
Vettel was issued a stop-go penalty during the race, in which he finished fifth, one place ahead of Hamilton, extending his championship lead over Hamilton to 14 points. Todt was known to be unhappy with the leniency of the decision, especially given his longstanding commitment to the FIA’s road safety campaign and the former Ferrari team principal was eager to have incident conclusively investigated.
Hamilton, a one-time FIA road safety ambassador, did not believe their conclusion reflected well on the campaign. “Road safety is a big issue. It is a campaign the FIA are constantly pushing and the decisions on how they govern the sport reflects on the rest of the world,” he said.
“We are used as a platform and we are supposed to be role models and we are supposed to give a certain message. We are human and don’t always get it right but collectively, as a sport, we are supposed to inspire and send the right message. We are in a position of power and how we utilise that is important.”
