Official: FIA rejects Aston Martin’s request for Vettel’s disqualification
Aston Martin fails in its request for a review of its driver's disqualification. The evidence is not relevant according to the FIA. Sebastian Vettel remains disqualified from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Blow for Aston Martin. While the British team promised to show new relevant evidence for its right to revision, the FIA rejected this evidence concerning Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
During this Grand Prix, the German driver finished second after a controlled race. However, Vettel was disqualified because the FIA was unable to take the required 1-liter fuel sample from his car as stipulated by the technical regulations. Following his request for a right of review, Aston Martin had a meeting on Monday, August 9 for a video conference with the stewards to decide the fate of their driver.
This Monday, the commissioners heard the boss of the Otmar Szafnauer team, the technical director Andrew Green and the sporting director Andy Stevenson to listen to the evidence. After the hearing, the FIA revealed that Aston Martin had discovered that a faulty fuel pump meant that a significant amount of fuel had been inadvertently discharged from the car’s fuel cell number 5. This meant that FIA staff could only extract 0.3 liters after the Grand Prix.
If this has been accepted as a new evidence, the stewards said it was not relevant to know why there was less than 1 liter of fuel in the car.
« Aston Martin should have provided evidence that there was indeed more than one liter of fuel left. The explanation of the impossibility of meeting this requirement is not relevant to determine if a violation of the regulations has occurred. »
Officials have rejected the team’s request for a review. Vettel’s disqualification from the race is pending a new appeal from Aston Martin. In a statement, the team is considering appealing again. The summer saga is far from over. Otmar Szafnauer expressed disappointment with the verdict and does not intend to leave it at that.
» Sebastian Vettel expertly drove in Hungary and we were delighted to have had the opportunity to present new significant evidence that we have discovered since the race. We believed the evidence was relevant and demonstrated to the FIA that Vettel should have been reinstated after his disqualification. Unfortunately, the FIA took a different view. Despite the fact that the accuracy of the new evidence was not disputed, Sebastian’s disqualification was upheld on the grounds that the new evidence was not deemed “relevant”. This is disappointing and we will now review our position regarding the full appeal process.
