On Monday August 9th, FIA have rejected Aston Martin’s review petition to overturn Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel lost second place when his team were unable to provide a one litre sample of fuel after the race as required by the rules. Only 300ml could be extracted from the Aston Martin.
Aston Martin asked for a review of the decision last week. However after considering a submission made by the team, the FIA stewards turned down the request.
In order for a review to be granted, the stewards must discover a new piece of significant and relevant evidence which was unavailable to the competitor when the original decision was reached.
Aston Martin supplied detailed information from its fuel system which it claimed showed it had experienced a failure during the race. As a result “a significant amount of fuel was inadvertently discharged from the fuel cell” of Vettel’s car during the race.
The stewards agreed this evidence constituted a “new element”. However they pointed out it did not change the fact Aston Martin were unable to give a sufficient sample after the race.
Aston Martin originally claimed there was a further 1.44 litres of fuel in Vettel’s car. However, the stewards noted, “an analysis of various data carried out after August 1st, 2021 showed that there was actually less than one litre remaining at the end of the race due to an initially unnoticed malfunction in the fuel system.”
The F1 rule book “unequivocally calls for a remaining amount of one litre and does not allow any exceptions under which circumstances or for what reasons it could be dispensed with”, they added.
The stewards therefore ruled Aston Martin’s request for an appeal inadmissible, and Vettel’s disqualification stands. The loss of second place means Aston Martin remain seventh in the championship, behind Alpine, who they would have overtaken had Vettel’s disqualification been overturned.
The decision also has implications for the championship. Lewis Hamilton inherited Vettel’s second place, and gained two points on rival Max Verstappen. Hamilton therefore has an eight-point lead in the drivers’ championship, while Mercedes lead the constructors’ title contest by 12 points.
What Next ?
Aston Martin can take this incident to International court of appeal, where they don’t need any extra element and arguments can be made with existing evidence. or They can drop any further action on this by accepting their disqualification.
Some times these rules doesn’t make any sense, when a driver and team put an effort to clinch podium and miss it by lack of 0.7 liters more fuel in the tank. It’s heart breaking for fans and big blow for Aston Martin in their championship battle.
