Vettel stripped of title for overtaking Vergne under yellow flag?

On the evening of the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, Christian Horner remarked that everything had happened to Sebastian Vettel before he finally went on to claim his third world title. Everything… except a penalty.

Indeed, this Sunday, viewers were hanging on the words of commentators reporting a suspicion of Sebastian Vettel overtaking Kamui Kobayashi under a yellow flag. According to article 4.1.2, paragraph b, of Annex H of the FIA Sporting Code, it is strictly forbidden to overtake under a yellow flag, whether it is partial or total. However, as confirmed on Sunday by Pat Fry, Ferrari’s technical director, and one of the stewards, Gary Connelly, it turned out to be a yellow flag for a slippery track, and under these circumstances, there was nothing to prevent Sebastian Vettel’s maneuver. Traditionally, a slippery track is signaled by a stationary yellow flag with orange stripes, but article 4.2 of Appendix H of the FIA Sporting Code states that « lights may be used to supplement or replace waved red, yellow, green, blue, or white flags ». Therefore, circuits are not required to use a lighting system to warn of slippery track conditions, and at Interlagos, race control used fixed yellow light signals to warn drivers of track conditions.

However, it is another incident that now raises questions as a dashcam video on the Internet shows Sebastian Vettel overtaking Jean-Eric Vergne on the fourth lap of the race under yellow flag conditions. Indeed, after encountering a flashing yellow light at the entry of turn 1 [on his left in the video below, at 05:47], a second signal relays the information at the exit of turn 2 [on his left, at 05:54], and a third at the exit of turn 3 [on his right at 06:01], and the German overtakes the Frenchman, who offers no resistance, a few dozen meters before a green light panel [on his left, at 06:06]. While passing through a yellow flag zone, each driver is also warned by a light signal on the steering wheel, which, in the case of Sebastian Vettel, turns off once the overtaking of Jean-Eric Vergne is completed. In doing so, being in violation of the FIA Sporting Code, the Red Bull driver should have received a penalty pass-through or, after the race, a 20-second penalty that would have relegated him to 8th position, thus offering the title to Fernando Alonso.

Some will have noted, however, that in the maneuver, Jean-Eric Vergne, the Toro Rosso driver, consequently linked to Red Bull, offers very little resistance to Sebastian Vettel as suggested by the speed differential and the fact that the Frenchman maintains an outside trajectory. However, in the sporting regulations, under the safety car regime and, we can assume by extension, under a yellow flag regime, only overtaking cars suffering from a manifest problem are authorized. In this case, however, nothing suggests that the Frenchman’s Toro Rosso was experiencing any problem justifying its pace. It remains to be seen how the FIA, if called upon to rule, will interpret the responsibilities of each party, particularly regarding whether Sebastian Vettel might have been surprised by Jean-Eric Vergne’s behavior. One thing is certain, however: to dispel any doubt, the German could have given back the place to the Frenchman to avoid possible sanctions, while other opportunities to pass would have presented themselves to the Toro Rosso driver a few corners later, away from the yellow flags.

Outside of any hypothesis, it remains that this new element raises a number of questions to which the FIA must provide answers, either on its own initiative to explain why this situation was not addressed immediately or directly after the race, or in response to a claim from Ferrari, which has until November 30th to do so according to Article 179bis of the International Sporting Code.

It’s difficult, however, to know if the FIA will decide to award the title off the track. While everyone will remember that Kimi Räikkönen’s world crown was left hanging for long hours pending the verdict of the stewards regarding the alleged non-compliance of Williams and BMW-Sauber’s fuel storage at the end of the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix, some will also recall the FIA’s indecision on the evening of the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix, where the Ferraris were initially disqualified for non-compliant side deflectors—thereby awarding the drivers’ and constructors’ titles to McLaren—before reversing the decision, sending both teams back to their respective corners to contest the title in the final round at Suzuka.