FIA maintains Vettel disqualification from Hungarian GP
FILE – Second placed Aston Martin’s German driver Sebastian Vettel celebrates on the podium after the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring race track in Mogyorod near Budapest on August 1, 2021. Vettel was later disqualified from his podium finish due to a technicality after his car was deemed to have insufficient fuel left after the race. (Photo by FERENC ISZA / AFP)
Formula One ruling body the FIA on Monday said it would not revisit the disqualification of Sebastian Vettel at the Hungarian Grand Prix as it dismissed an appeal by his Aston Martin team.
The German was disqualified from second place a week ago due to a technicality after his car was deemed to have insufficient fuel left after the race.
Race commissioners said that evidence brought by the team seeking to show they had evidence showing a technical problem relating to the post-race extraction of a required 1.0-litre fuel sample did not warrant revisiting the decision and rejected a review.
The race commissioners found that “for the assessment of whether or not the 1-litre requirement was broken, it does not make a difference why there was less than 1 liter.”
They also found “it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained and that “in order to be able to affirm a ‘relevant’ fact, Aston Martin would have had to present facts that actually more than 1 litre of fuel was remaining. The explanation why this requirement could not be met is not relevant to the decision as to whether a breach of the regulations has occurred.”
As a result of Vettel missing a second season podium world champion, Lewis Hamilton was awarded second place and the Mercedes star now has an eight-point lead over Max Verstappen in the title race.
