Ferrari hit out at F1 stewarding inconsistency after harsh Lewis Hamilton penalty
Was Lewis Hamilton's 10-second time penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix fair?
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has questioned the severity of Lewis Hamilton’s penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The seven-time F1 world champion was handed a 10-second time penalty after locking up at Turn 4 and running across the corner.
By doing so, Hamilton was able to jump ahead of Max Verstappen.
The penalty proved detrimental to Hamilton’s race, as he ultimately finished eighth.
Without it, Vasseur was confident Hamilton would have finished fourth at worst.
The Frenchman alluded to the fact Verstappen wasn’t penalised for cutting the track just before Hamilton’s offence.
Verstappen also escaped punishment for cutting Turn 1 on the opening lap.
“This cost us P4… One thing is the penalty, for sure, that we didn’t follow the race director’s notes,” he told reporters in Mexico City.
“But 10 seconds, I don’t remember when someone took 10 seconds.
“If you consider, if you have the global picture, saying that Max cut the corner before, he cut the chicane, in the grass, 100 metres. I think it’s not very well managed, honestly.
“Because you are in Mexico, on top of this, I don’t say that you have to adapt the penalty to the track, but you have to understand what you are doing.
“He took the 10 seconds. This dropped us at the queue of the group and we can’t overtake.
“It’s after the pitstop that you have no issue to recover. This cost us, probably P4, even with the five seconds, I think we were still P4. But with 10 seconds…”
Vasseur sees Ferrari positives
Overall, it was a strong weekend for Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc and Hamilton secured second and third on the grid in qualifying - Ferrari’s best result of the year.
Had it not been for Hamilton’s penalty, it’s likely Ferrari would have come away with two cars in the top four.
“I think overall it was a good weekend. We had a very strong pace yesterday in quali with P2 and P3, and today I think that Lando was a step ahead at least and it was difficult to imagine to do better than P2,” Vasseur told Sky Germany.
“The downside, or the negative side, is probably the penalty. I found the penalty a bit harsh — 10 seconds is very, very harsh because this dropped us behind all the group, and in Mexico it’s so difficult to overtake that this cost us.”
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