Aston Martin considers the FIA’s decision to retain Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian Grand Prix to be “disappointing”.
Vettel took a staggering P2 in a hugely dramatic race, making it the second podium he secured this season for himself and for his team. However, the FIA disqualified him from the final results as they could not obtain the required one-litre of fuel from his car after the race.
The constructor appealed against the decision, but the FIA stuck with their previous verdict. Now it seems the team are determined to have the disqualification overturned. Aston Martin has announced that the team will not budge from their stance, and has stated that there was enough fuel in the car. The FIA, however, rejected this claim, stating the new evidence part of their appeal “did not make a difference”.
The stewards spoke with the team on Monday, who tried to tell them that a failure in the fuel system was the reason why the FIA could only extract 0.3 litres. The FIA remained unmoved, and now Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has pledged to keep at the appeal.
“Sebastian drove brilliantly in Hungary and we are pleased to have been given the opportunity to show significant new evidence we discovered since the race,” he said.
“We felt the evidence we presented was relevant and demonstrated to the FIA he should have been reinstated following his disqualification.
No backing down
“Unfortunately, the FIA took a different view and, despite the fact that the accuracy of our new evidence was not contested, Sebastian’s disqualification has been upheld on the basis that the new evidence was not deemed ‘relevant’. That is disappointing, and we will now consider our position in respect of the full appeal process,” he concluded.
With Vettel’s disqualification, the 18 points Aston Martin were supposed to take home are also gone. They will try and fight to get those valuable points, as well as to put an end to this dispute between themselves and the F1 governing body.
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