Aston Martin lost second place to Sebastian Vettel in the Hungarian Grand Prix after the stewards found an irregularity with the amount of fuel. Something that encourages the German rider to ask for greater tolerance in certain situations.
Disqualification of Sebastian vettel at the Hungaroring it still hurts at Aston Martin, which sees its chances of finishing the season in fifth place in the constructors’ championship suffer a severe setback.
But, despite the appeal filed by the Silverstone-based team, the FIA determined that it had been amply demonstrated that the Vettel car did not keep a liter of fuel in the tank after the race – which is required by the regulations – and the cause of the violation was irrelevant.
“Obviously, it is bitter. It was a great result for us, but I don’t think there was much we could have done, ”laments Sebastian Vettel about it. «Obviously, during the race we had the fuel under control, we thought so, but In the end, I think it was the last lap, we found that something might not be right and we were very surprised when the fuel was not in the car.
Mitigating
Vettel considers that there were extenuating factors that justified the withdrawal of the sanction, but the commissioners were inflexible.
“It is very bitter, but those are the rules, so we have to accept it and continue,” he reiterates. “It is very bitter because, first, I think we did not gain an advantage. In second place, there was no intention or no way we could explain that there was too little fuel in the car. So something happened in the course of the race, I don’t know, a leak or something like that, the fuel was just gone. “
“It is clear, the rules are as they are and we were disqualified. Looking forward, you don’t want that to happen to anyone else and there should probably be a little more tolerance. But what exactly you should write on paper, I don’t know, that’s for other people to think about it, “he concludes.
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Nevertheless, Andy Stevenson, Aston Martin’s sporting director, has acknowledged that the situation was partly due to a team error, which started the race with too much fuel.
«The race was slower than we thought due to the rain. But once you’ve decided on a fuel quantity, you can’t change anything, even with a restart, ”Stevenson laments.
“We wanted to get rid of the excess fuel”admits the Brit, hinting that the team misjudged how much fuel Vettel should burn with aggressive engine maps. That, together with the mechanical failure, led to the subsequent outcome.