Community service for Seb
FIRST, the stewards refused to wave the black flag at sebastian Vettel, and now the FIA have waved the white flag.
The Ferrari driver must have breathed a sigh of relief when FIA president Jean Todt decided to take no meaningful action against him for deliberately driving into lewis Hamilton at the Azerbaijan GP.
Vettel was given a 10- second stop-go penalty by the stewards, a lenient punishment for an outof- control punt. so the FIA launched an investigation, only to decide that the in- race sanction was adequate after all.
Therefore, Vettel’s lead over Hamilton remains at 14 points.
An FIA statement said: ‘Following detailed discussion and further examination of video and data evidence related to the incident, sebastian Vettel admitted full responsibility.
‘He extended his sincere apologies to the FIA and the wider motorsport family. He additionally committed to devote personal time over the next 12 months to educational activities across a variety of FIA championships. due to this incident, president Jean Todt instructed that no road safety activities should be endorsed by Vettel until the end of the year.’
Vettel was accompanied in Paris by Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene. Todt warned the championship leader that any recurrence would be met with referral to the International Tribunal.
‘They (sportsmen) are heroes and role models to millions of fans worldwide and must conduct themselves accordingly,’ said Todt.
Cynics will see the non-action as ‘proof’ that the FIA stands for Ferrari International Assistance. They will point to Todt’s long stint as the scuderia’s team principal in the Michael schumacher era as ‘evidence’.
Untested accusations aside, the FIA can fairly be accused of failing to stand up as strongly as they could have done for the values of sportsmanship.