Mercedes: Vettel right to be angry but stewards must be supported

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has defended Sebastian Vettel's reaction to the penalty which cost him the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver let his feelings be known after he was controversially given a five-second penalty for unsafely rejoining the track following a short excursion across the grass at the Turn 4&5 chicane.

He refused to park his car with the top three, strolled through the paddock and replaced the P1 board with P2 in front of Lewis Hamilton's car before eventually emerging for the podium ceremony.

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“First of all, Sebastian is absolutely right, if it was me I would kick the damn board and thrown it against the car,” Wolff told Sky Sports.

“Emotions are logic and are good for the sport and in all the typical decisions there is a controversial one."

The Austrian then admitted how he can see both sides of the argument.

“I am of course biased for Mercedes and there is a rule that says you have to leave a car’s width when you go off the track, and I think his instinctive reaction was that he had to protect that position, and maybe that was a tiny bit too far," Wolff continued. 

“If you’re a Ferrari fan or somebody that is keen on seeing hard racing, you’d like to see a little bit more of a bumper car mentality.

“I was a bit surprised because I didn’t think that they would come up with a controversial decision but from a clear regulations point, they have interpreted what is black and white."

Earlier this year it was revealed that talks between stewards and drivers had taken place to produce a more lenient approach to on-track incidents.

But whatever the outcome, the Mercedes boss insists the authority of the race officials should be maintained.

"What we must not do is put the stewards under pressure in a way that they will struggle more in the future to come up with decisions," he said.

“We need consistent decision making from the stewards, and we need to support the stewards in their objective to reach that.

“Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you. It went against us in the past.

“If we’re not happy with the rules, because we like harder racing, count me in. Then the stewards will take another decision because the rule will be a different one."

 

         

 

 

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