Double world champion Mika Hakkinen claims Sebastian Vettel’s penalty in Canada “penalised everyone watching Formula 1”.
The reaction continues to the German’s five-second punishment for pushing Lewis Hamilton against the wall as he rejoined the track during Sunday’s race in Montreal.
And now it is likely to rumble on to the next race in France with Ferrari considering their ‘right to review’ the incident with the FIA.
Offering his view, however, Hakkinen believes the stewards shouldn’t have been so hasty with their decision.
“The penalty given to Sebastian ruined the race and left me wondering if the Stewards could not have examined it in more detail together with the drivers and teams afterwards before making a considered decision,” he wrote for Unibet.
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“At least the TV viewers and spectators would have enjoyed a battle until the end of the race rather than realising it was all over.
“The two cars did not touch, there was no collision. Sebastian and Lewis did what they had to do, gave each other just enough room and then continued racing.”
The ‘Flying Finn’ then drew a comparison to his era with Michael Schumacher, noting how many of their duels probably wouldn’t have been allowed today.
“When I look back at my racing career in Formula 1, I think Michael Schumacher and I had more freedom to race,” he stated. “Maybe there were not so many cameras picking up everything that we did.
“There would have been a lot of five-second penalties or worse if we had been racing with today’s rules.
“The FIA has done amazing work in order to make the sport so much safer, while the Stewards have a tough job to do, often under a lot of pressure,” Hakkinen continued.
“However, I do think that the drivers, teams, FIA and F1 itself need to work out how to let drivers race, recognising that sometimes you need to be realistic and think about the sport’s reputation.
“No one was happy on Sunday. The penalty ended the battle for the lead, and penalised everyone watching F1.”
