Fred Vasseur disagrees with Lewis Hamilton Belgian GP penalty after George Russell clash
Penalty-worthy or a racing incident? Fred Vasseur has placed backing behind his driver.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur felt Lewis Hamilton’s time penalty during the Belgian Grand Prix was a harsh one.
After contact with George Russell at Les Combes, the Mercedes driver was left beached in the gravel and was forced to retire on the first lap, with the stewards handing Hamilton a five-second time penalty.
Fred Vasseur questions Lewis Hamilton penalty after George Russell collision
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The Belgian Grand Prix marked back-to-back races in which Hamilton has received a time penalty, after a five-second punishment at Silverstone for a false start.
Having waited in the pit lane for work to begin, Ferrari was handed a double hit by being given a €30,000 [€10k suspended] fine after a mechanic was adjusting Hamilton’s front wing when he looked to pull away.
The mechanic fell over as the light went green for the seven-time world champion, but was unharmed – though Ferrari has been hit in the pocket for an unsafe release.
On the first lap, Russell looked to recover places after Hamilton was one of the cars to pass him along the Kemmel Straight.
Braking late, Russell took to the outside to snatch the inside for the second part of Les Combes, with a snap of oversteer from Hamilton seemingly taking him into Russell’s back corner and spinning him around.
Russell himself felt it was a racing incident with his former teammate, but the stewards felt otherwise on this occasion – which drew disagreement from the Ferrari team boss.
Asked if he felt Hamilton’s penalty was harsh, Vasseur told PlanetF1.com and other media after the race: “Yes, because so far this season all of the incidents of Lap 1 were considered as racing incidents and, on this one, the person [Russell] had far enough space to not close on the right and go on the left.
“At the end of the day, it’s not me who is making the decision, but it seems tough.”
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Hamilton took to social media to acknowledge that he never quite recovered from a heavy late crash in FP3 on Saturday, with his Ferrari team working hard to have his rear-right corner repaired in time for qualifying.
With cars going into parc fermé at that point and heavily limiting the work which can take place, Hamilton felt a podium was possible without his practice incident.
Despite that, though, he is taking the positives from the weekend as a whole – hinting at further Ferrari upgrades in the process.
“P4 at the end of the day, but overall an unfortunate weekend for me,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I’m grateful to the team for getting the car back on track. Even with all their hard work, I was definitely on the back foot after my mistake.
“Still, there are encouraging signs. We had good pace and we have more coming to take us to the next level.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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