The FIA have defended their decision not to penalize Max Verstappen for his move on Charles Leclerc at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix. Some have said the FIA has been inconsistent in their approach after penalizing Sebastian Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix and Daniel Ricciardo at the French Grand Prix. FIA race director Michael Masi believes that the two incidents were very different with only one of them needing a penalty.
“The incident in Canada, Sebastian went across the grass, was in front, it wasn’t an overtaking manoeuvre,” said Masi to RaceFans.net.
“The one with Daniel, with particularly Lando, was very much as part of Daniel going off the track and rejoining. Whereas this here was both cars were on the track, it was an overtaking manoeuvre.
“Trying to compare the three of them, they are three very different incidents. So from that end, it was an overtaking manoeuvre and as the stewards rightly pointed out in their view it was a racing incident and it was one of those it was just good hard racing from the perspective that they saw.”
Many fans of Formula 1 believe that the FIA and stewards play too big a role in determining the outcome of races. Motorsport purists just want to see good racing and let decisions be sorted out quickly on track.
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