The Formula One team indicated on Monday that it will rely on the statistics to decide whether to appeal Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from second position in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The decision will have an impact on the title fight between Mercedes’ seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who is expected to inherit second spot, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who will move up to ninth place.
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“We are now analysing data in order to decide whether to appeal or not,” said a team spokesman on Monday.
After the governing FIA was unable to extract the required litre of fuel from Vettel’s car after the race, the four-time world champion was disqualified.
Aston Martin filed an appeal at the Hungaroring on Sunday night, and they have a 96-hour window to decide whether to pursue it further or accept the 18-point penalty.
“Since we had reason to believe that there was more than one litre of fuel in Sebastian Vettel’s car after the Hungarian Grand Prix, we decided to reserve our right to appeal” said the spokesman.
The FIA has sealed and impounded Vettel’s car, with Formula One about to resume its three-week August break.
If Aston Martin do proceed, the outcome will also be closely watched by those further down the pecking order.
Williams, the defending champions, scored their first points since 2019 on Sunday, moving up to eighth overall and ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas.
Williams would receive 10 points instead of six if Vettel were not included in the results, a considerable differential among tail-enders for whom every point is a struggle.
Guenther Steiner, the head coach of Haas, was pessimistic about the chances of an appeal. His team has yet to score in 2021.
“Maybe in the procedure to get the fuel out, there is something,” he told reporters on Monday. “If there was only that amount of fuel, it’s black and white. There is nothing in-between.
“I don’t know if there was an issue to take the fuel out and they couldn’t get everything out…”
Otmar Szafnauer, the CEO of Aston Martin, claimed there should have been 1.74 litres of fuel left and suggested a pump problem. The information will reveal how much fuel was put in and how much was used.
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