Autosportfoto

Fine, ban, humble posters... How could the FIA punish Vettel?

If Sebastian Vettel thought he would be allowed to move on and forget his Baku 'faux pas' then yesterday's confirmation the incident is being reviewed again means he will have to think again.

A recap of the incident itself: Lewis Hamilton slows from 80kph to 53kph on the exit of Turn 15 whilst under safety car conditions, catching Vettel unawares and leading the Ferrari driver to strike the back of the Mercedes. Vettel proceeds to pull alongside Hamilton to remonstrate at what he felt was deliberate brake-testing, before intentionally turning into his rival, making contact right-front wheel to left-front wheel.

Causing a storm on social media, stewards react by handing down a 10secs stop/go penalty for the offence, the harshest penalty it can levy mid-race short of an exclusion.

Though a steadfast Vettel has attempted to justify his actions (largely by refusing to acknowledge it even happened) by deflecting the blame towards Hamilton, widespread criticism of the championship leader has forced the FIA to act retrospectively and review the incident again.

Raising the possibility of more punishments for Vettel and/or his Ferrari team, so begs the questions:

Will the FIA stand by its pre-season declaration it wants to allow more physical racing to be decided on the track and not in the stewards' room, or choose to go all the way in making an example of Vettel as a world champion that really should know better?

We consider the options available to the FIA and which seem most likely:

Fine

A fine would seem the logical choice for punishment as it could be used to both successfully make a point without accusations of the FIA interfering in the title fight. After all, the FIA might feel vindicated in slapping a sizeable fee to make an example of Vettel knowing full well his and Ferrari's deep pockets are likely to cover it without worrying about rejigging the 'weekly food budget' to compensate.

It would also absolve the FIA from being accused of affecting the title battle post-race... however, for the same reasons mentioned above a fine to the wealthiest team in the sport might be seen as relatively ineffective for its original intentions.

Grid penalty

The equivalent of a time penalty if the driver who causes a collision in the race also retires, the subsequent grid penalty for the next race is applied. As it stands, a three-place penalty is the standard drop as per the regulations, which in the context of Ferrari's competitiveness is an irritation rather than a disaster.

A back of the grid start could also be handed down but Ferrari would see it as an opportunity to take on a series of grid penalties for component changes at a time when it is stacking up niggling power unit problems. Not ideal, but potentially not a disaster.

Time penalty

Seemingly unlikely as the stop/go penalty handed in the race essentially means a post-race time penalty would see him punished for the same incident in the same way twice. Then again this 'double jeopardy' rule clearly didn't apply when Daniil Kvyat was given a second penalty in addition to a first one - which was incorrect - in Canada, so who knows?

Could he be excluded? Stewards considered it at the time apparently, but it is likely it will avoid trying to alter the actual result itself days after the chequered flag fell for a sporting - rather than technical - reason.

Points deduction

Arguably the harshest penalty the FIA is most likely to consider as it shifts the onus back to Vettel, especially if it decides to only dock Ferrari in the constructors' reckoning. With all the talk of winning and losing for the team, Ferrari may feel especially aggrieved if by the end of the season it loses out to Mercedes in the constructors' standings because of a few digits dropped because of a hot-head moment in Baku.

If Vettel did win the title by a few digits because the FIA chose to only punish Ferrari, you can imagine the awkwardness that would come next. As far as making Vettel think twice next time, this is arguably very effective.

One race ban

Had Vettel's actions led to their exit from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix then a one race ban might be on the cards and it would have been decided already

Contrition

Whilst we are unlikely to see Vettel pleading for forgiveness any time soon, some contrition might be enough to keep the FIA and Mercedes happy. Though Seb has historically never enjoyed facing trial by media, it might be advised that he doesn't attempt to deflect it by answering one question about it and then refusing to answer any more - as he has previously done.

After all, Mercedes and Ferrari management have remained stoic at the risk of saying something it would later regret and are likely to want to move on rather than have their title challenging team members and drivers distracted by squabbles.

Hamilton, meanwhile, is unlikely to care either way whether Vettel offers an olive branch... and for the sake of a title battle, we're rather happy about this.

F1 'community service'

When the President of the FIA dedicates his work towards ensuring the world is a safer place on the road for drivers and pedestrians, to then have your four-time world champion intentionally cause a collision could be termed as a 'unfortunate' from PR point of view.

As such, one can imagine Jean Todt personally calling for another investigation into Vettel to at least make clear his displeasure at Vettel's single moment of newspaper front-page grabbing 'road rage' to undermine years of hard work promoting the opposite.

It means we expect to see a humble Vettel coming to a poster near you emphasising the importance of 'staying focused on the road' with plenty of FIA Action for Road Safety appearances pencilled in for the rest of the year.

Amusing maybe, but it is exactly the tactic the FIA used with Michael Schumacher as part of the punishments associated with his 1997 title deciding moment of madness.

Nothing at all

It is the outcome most in red will be hoping for, if not necessarily expecting, but it isn't unreasonable to suggest merely raising the issue formally will be enough for the FIA to send its message to Sebastian Vettel that it isn't impressed with his behaviour.

However, there are a few reasons as to why it is unlikely to do so. It is the second time in eight months Vettel's actions have been deemed serious enough to warrant a post-race investigation following his alarming radio outburst at the end of the Mexican Grand Prix.

Whilst on that occasion Vettel did largely escape without punishment primarily because of the (some would say misguided) rationale of FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting, whom the tirade was aimed at, this incident involved another driver, another team and occurred in a very public manner.

Declaring the matter as merely noted would seem fairly pointless at this stage. 

Zdroj: crash.net