Ferrari didn’t want to "lose energy" on Lewis Hamilton’s Italian GP penalty

Fred Vasseur has explained why Ferrari did not fight Lewis Hamilton’s penalty at the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton has been given a five-place grid penalty for this weekend’s race at Monza after stewards ruled he had failed to slow sufficiently under double waved yellow flags on his way to the grid ahead of last Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.

It means the seven-time world champion will start his first Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari no higher than sixth.

The incident occurred 40 minutes before the start of last Sunday’s race at Zandvoort but was not investigated until after the chequered flag. This has led to question marks over whether Hamilton should have served his penalty in the Netherlands, rather than the punishment being carried over to Italy.

But Ferrari team principal Vasseur did not want to waste energy ahead of the Italian outfit’s most important weekend of the season.

“For sure we were a bit disappointed,” Vasseur said during Friday’s team principal’s press conference at Monza.

“Honestly I don’t know if it was too harsh or not but from Sunday evening in Zandvoort my decision was to be focused on Monza and not to spend any energy to fight this.

“The frustration on the decision came also because you have to slow down but it’s subjective, it’s not black or white. Someone is deciding if you slow down enough and depending on the person who is taking the decision it will be different.

“But it is like it is. We decided to be focused on the [Italian Grand Prix] weekend, to don’t lose energy on Zandvoort.”

Hamilton admitted he was left “shocked” by what he felt was a “pretty hardcore” penalty.

"I don't know how the other drivers felt about the decisions from the last race, but when I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, I was really shocked, to be honest,” the Briton said on Thursday.

"But it is what it is. It's obviously not black and white. The fact is if you look at the [stewards'] report, I did lift but to their liking not enough, so that's why I guess they're saying not more.

"To get the penalty and get penalty points was pretty hardcore, but I learn from it and there is no point whinging about it, I'll move forwards.

"It's going to be challenging this weekend. Qualifying is already so close between us all. So just getting into Q3 is tough, getting in the top five is very, very tough and on top of that to be set back five places is not great when you're going into your first Monza GP with Ferrari.

"But it gives me more to fight for and I'm very motivated to make up those places, regardless.”

A “slam dunk” penalty

F1 commentator and former grand prix driver Martin Brundle believes the stewards were right to give Hamilton a “slam dunk” penalty.

“It was a slam dunk penalty,” Brundle told Sky Sports F1.

“[He] broke two regulations, because also the entry speed into the pit lane itself. I do believe that [penalty] should have been applied in the race to give them a chance to cycle that penalty through.

“But two wrongs don’t make a right in that respect. I think the team have to take some responsibility.

“If you read the sporting regs, and the technical regs, and the international sporting code, and then the race director’s notes on any given weekend, as well, you can’t expect the drivers to absorb all of that. We struggle to absorb it.

“You just keep reading, reading [and] reading all of the stuff. But he should have been reminded by the team, if he wasn’t,not to charge through the final corner.

“But I don’t think they can complain about the penalty. In fact, I think they’re lucky it wasn’t a 10-place grid drop.”