Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene slammed stewards for the decision made to penalise his driver Sebastian Vettel after the Mexican Grand Prix, believing it to be too harsh and an unnecessary bureaucratic sanction.
The penalty, received for what was deemed to be a move under braking as the German attempted a pass on Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo on the final lap of the race, saw Vettel and the team have their podium finish revoked after the event, when a ten second time penalty knocked the German down to fifth place.
Arrivabene felt the team’s strong performance on Sunday was deserving of a visit to the final step of the podium, after a for once well thought out strategy saw them right up at the sharp end and back challenging the Red Bull’s for position, despite their woeful qualifying on Saturday, which left them languishing on the third and fourth row of the grid at the start of the grand prix.
The Italian was unhappy that Ferrari were unable to appeal the decision, which he says has ruined what would could have been a fantastic weekend for the Maranello based team.
“Today could have felt special: we fully deserved this podium, which was taken away by bureaucracy.
“The whole team had shown great stamina by staying united and focused in a difficult moment. Our strategy had made it possible to make good progress through the race and both drivers did a very good job.”
“Unfortunately, we were penalized by the Stewards un-appealable decision which, in my opinion, is too harsh and somehow unfair.”
