Vettel hits out at “not very professional” FIA after delayed F1 penalty verdict

Sebastian Vettel has labelled the FIA as “not very professional” due to the time it took for the Formula 1 stewards to issue a penalty in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Vettel was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty after Aston Martin hadn’t fitted all four tyres to his car before the five-minute signal ahead of the grand prix.

The team had been working on Vettel’s car after it suffered a brake issue on its way to the grid before the race.

As the repairs hadn’t been completed in time, Vettel was forced to start from the pitlane and thus dropped to the back of the grid.

Vettel served his penalty at the end of Lap 21, cementing his place at the rear of the field as he made an early switch to slick tyres.

Reflecting on the penalty he had received, Vettel was frustrated by how long it took for the FIA to give a verdict.

“Obviously the guys tried everything on the grid and I think they did really well,” Vettel said. “So they were really alert. But I think we could have had a better race if the FIA was more alert.

“We broke a rule, that’s why we got a penalty. They didn’t bother [to issue it] until way into the race. So by that time the penalty cost a lot more than it would have earlier in the race.

“So that’s not very professional. But it certainly wasn’t a decider for us today.”

FIA race director Michael Masi wasn’t in agreement with Vettel’s opinion that the penalty decision had been slow.

“I don’t know about taking longer than it should have,” Masi said. “It was obviously reported by the technical delegate, I’d have to have a look at the reports but once it was reported by the technical delegate, being the paper report that appears in the document management system, at that point the stewards had a look at the regulations, confirmed the evidence and determined what the penalty was.”