Red Bull has lost their request to review the 10-second penalty given to Lewis Hamilton for colliding with Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.
The Anglo-Austrian team was livid at what they considered to be insufficient punishment for the seven-time world champion for tagging the Dutchman and sending him into the barrier at high speed on the opening lap.
In addition, Red Bull also felt the penalty was soft because Hamilton was still able to recover and claim victory at Silverstone.
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With the request to review, motorsport advisor Helmut Marko hoped Hamilton would be given a further penalty or even banned from this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, at a hearing on Thursday evening in Budapest, the FIA stewards deemed the argument and evidence put forward did not represent “a significant and relevant new element” which is the threshold to trigger a full review.
According to reports, the case Red Bull put forward included data from the simulator proving that Hamilton would not have made the corner at Copse based on the line and speed he was taking.
Also, the team compared the attempted overtake by Lewis on Max on Lap 1 to that he tried on Charles Leclerc in the closing laps.
Two angles, one collision, many views! ??#BritishGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/qIZ3Qp7KiD
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 20, 2021
“The slides in Appendix 2 of the Competitor (Red Bull)’s letter that were relied upon as New Evidence were not “discovered” but created for the purposes of submissions to support the Petition for Review,” the stewards said of the sim data.
“They were created based on evidence that was available to the Competitor at the time of the decision (namely the GPS data). That clearly does not satisfy the requirements of Article 14.”
Earlier on Thursday, Verstappen strong criticised both the penalty and Hamilton’s victory celebrations, claiming Lewis and Mercedes had “shown how they really are”.
The Briton though later denied that and defended his actions at Silverstone insisting he would do everything the same again in the future.
Now though, all avenues in this case are closed with Red Bull left to lick their wounds of a big cut to their leads in both championships plus the estimated $1.8m cost of Verstappen’s crash.
