Vettel time penalty review on standby
Ferrari's stewards review of the Canada GP time penalty is "on standby".
That is the news from Daniele Sparisci, the correspondent for Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
We reported earlier that the stewards at Paul Ricard were expected to make a decision about the review of Sebastian Vettel's controversial Montreal time penalty by Thursday.
But Sparisci says: "Neither the OK to take it forwards nor a rejection by the FIA has come.
"At Maranello, they hope the matter will be dealt with as soon as possible. But perhaps it will take some more time because it is a delicate matter and all the elements must be weighed."
He claims Ferrari has prepared a package of videos and telemetry to show that Vettel did not deliberately cause Lewis Hamilton to take evasive action.
Sparisci thinks Ferrari's sporting director Laurent Mekies, who until 2017 worked for the FIA, has intricate knowledge of how the governing body's review process works.
"Also clear is that Mercedes is also ready to provide its reasons for defending Hamilton's victory," he added.
Therefore, a video conference to link the Paul Ricard and Montreal stewards may not suffice. "This time, a meeting may be necessary," said Sparisci.
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher says that when he was racing, "there would have been no penalty" for a Vettel-Hamilton-like incident.
"But based on the current rules, the time penalty is correct," the German told Sky Deutschland.
"Of course, these rules do limit racing, and so personally I like the old regulations better," Schumacher added.
"I understand that Ferrari is trying to overturn the decision, but instead they might want to work on changing the rules so that this does not happen in the future."
Related Topics:Sebastian Vettel