Ferrari won’t let the events of Mexico go as they have launched two protests over the course of the Brazilian GP weekend.
The first was against Sebastian Vettel’s penalty, which saw the German demoted from third to fifth after the race, as they claimed new evidence had come to light.
That was later revealed to be GPS data which the FIA had already seen, therefore, their protest was rejected, however, they have now reportedly appealed the rejection with the fiasco set to rumble on.
This all stems back to the incident involving Vettel and the two Red Bull’s in the closing laps at Mexico City.
The Ferrari driver was battling with Max Verstappen when the two went wheel-to-wheel at the first corner.
The Dutchman out-braked himself and ran across the grass, maintaining his position. Following that, Daniel Ricciardo as able to catch up and when the Australian attacked Vettel, the four-time world champion was deemed to have moved in the braking zone.
That was a violation of a new rule introduced at the US Grand Prix in response to various incidents involving Verstappen since the Hungarian Grand Prix this summer.
The likelihood of a successful appeal by Ferrari is small and really the whole situation is beginning to hint at how desperate the situation is becoming at Maranello.
The pressure has been growing on the team after a disappointing season and indeed, Red Bull are widely expected to secure second in the Constructors’ championship in Brazil.
Mexico really saw the frustrations of the Scuderia spill out as Vettel went on a now infamous radio rant and the persistence of Ferrari to fight the penalty suggests Maurizio Arrivabene is equally feeling the heat.
In Brazil, Ricciardo called on Ferrari to move on from the incident: “To make it go on a week or two weeks after is just dragging it out,” he told Autosport.
“Obviously there’s the fight in the constructors’ and every point matters, so from that point of view, you can see why they want to keep trying to get those points back.
“But after Sunday’s done, once midnight ticks, the next day you move on.”
The Australian even admitted he wasn’t happy with the circumstances that led to his promotion to third.
“It’s not that nice to be fighting things out once the chequered flag’s dropped,” he said.
“It’s not what everyone wants to see, but we had our reasons.”
However, Vettel believes there is still a case to answer: “Of course I support it [the appeal]. We’re not happy with the situation,” he said.
“We’ve said it many times: we don’t feel that the penalty is justified.”
To add further fuel to the debate, Max Verstappen has blasted what he sees as overregulation of defensive driving in Formula One.
The Dutchman has been largely at the centre of the debate, which has raged on since the summer after a number of questionable moves.
While they went unpunished, the pressure on the FIA for clarification led to the new rule that Vettel broke in Mexico.
As a result, the Red Bull man now believes it is near-impossible for a driver to defend a position in F1.
“That it is just a very complex rule, I think, it is just very difficult,” he told Crash.net. “You can’t defend, basically, that’s my feeling.
“Before there was an art in defending and overtaking, but the defending bit has gone because you can’t do anything.
Verstappen even says he understands why Ferrari won’t let the matter drop.
“Of course they thought it was not right so they tried to appeal it but it’s clearly in the rules that you can’t do it anymore so everybody, of course, has to follow the rules.”
