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Hamilton, Vettel clash remains the big talking point in Baku
Inevitably Sebastian Vettel’s ‘heat of the moment’ lunge at Lewis Hamilton was the main talking point after the Azerbaijan GP, with both the nature of the move and the size of the penalty – a 10-second stop-and-go – generating debate.
Aside from the Ferrari camp, most paddock insiders accepted that Vettel was in the wrong and that punishment was inevitable. Niki Lauda compared the Ferrari driver to Michael Schumacher.
“Lewis will hit him one day, I think,” said Lauda. “Not with the car, with the fist! I don’t know. Certainly if I’m Lewis I would speak to Sebastian, and ask what is wrong. But Vettel for me is the same as Michael, because Michael just said he didn’t do anything wrong. This is his normal reaction. If anything goes wrong, he’s still somewhere else in his brain, and it’s not my fault. I think after three days he realizes then, hopefully, and then he will be normal again.”
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said he understood why Vettel was upset.
“You know the emotions go high in a race car,” he said. “Like we've seen in the past, you have the visor down and you have your own perception of events, so I guess the only explanation I have - and I'm not going to protect Sebastian here - is that Sebastian thought Lewis was brake testing him, which he wasn't.
“We have seen that in the data, with the safety car being 150 meters ahead. So that was a wrong judgment. I almost can't imagine that he did it on purpose in shunting into him. So I'd like to speak to him personally and hear what he says about the incident rather than making a judgment without properly having heard his statement.
“If a driver does that on purpose in anger, then you have to think about the size of the penalty. Of course he is a four-time world champion and in Formula 1 we are setting examples to all the young drivers out there about what is all allowed and what is not. It is difficult for me to understand. It didn't change anything.”
Although his team wasn’t directly involved in the incident, Red Bull boss Christian Horner knows Vettel well.
“Sebastian obviously felt that Lewis brake tested him,” said Horner. “And then it just looked like a red mist moment to me, where he's lost it and taken a swipe at him, which was only ever going to result in a penalty. It's heat of the moment stuff and a penalty was inevitable after that.
“He's obviously had just a momentarily Tourette’s moment. Emotions are running high, they're fighting for a world championship. I think it cements the rivalry between the two of them, for the rest of the season. I guess Lewis was upset about it because after he'd served his own 'effective' penalty, he came out behind him. That's down to the stewards.”
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