COOPER: Vettel/Vergne Incident

Formula 1

COOPER: Vettel/Vergne Incident

It was all so unnecessary, and in the end, Ferrari has shot itself in the foot and come out of this looking like a bad loser...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 30, 2012 Dover (GBR)

Full-screen on-board footage of Sebastian Vettel passing Jean-Eric Vergne in the Brazilian GP seems to reveal a green flag in the upper left. (Image: FOM via YouTube)

Ferrari’s acceptance earlier today that Sebastian Vettel’s pass of Jean-Eric Vergne in lap 4 in Brazil was legal ensures that five days after the race we know for sure that Vettel won the championship, and there will be no legal challenge.

We can all thus breathe a sigh of relief. However, the fact that the matter has been in the headlines for the past few days reflects badly on the Maranello team, and questions should be asked about how it was allowed to happen.

The Vettel/Vergne incident wasn’t on the live TV feed, which is why everyone missed it at the time. It was only a couple of days after the race that fans with access to Vettel’s on board channel found what appeared to be a suspect pass, and clips began to circulate in the internet.

One British fan put together a 12-minute segment and explained with some logic and clarity why other passes mentioned on Sunday were legal, and why the Vergne one appeared to be suspect. He sent a YouTube link to me, and I have to admit it looked interesting - Vettel had yellow lights on his dash and he made the pass before he came to the next green light panel. The fact Vergne as a Red Bull-backed driver clearly made it very easy for him was neither here nor there.

The significance was that had a suspect pass been spotted at the time, Vettel could have been awarded a drive through. It would have made it a lot harder for him to get the seventh place that he ultimately required, but it would not have been impossible. Indeed he would have regained a lot of time at the first safety car.

However a post-race penalty of 20 seconds would have had a clear impact – it would have dropped him to eighth and given Fernando Alonso the title by a point.

And the FIA does have the power to reconvene the stewards of a race if ‘new evidence’ emerges. They did that after Australia 2009 when I drew the FIA’s attention to the fact that Lewis Hamilton had in fact allowed Jarno Trulli to pass him under the safety car, having told them that he hadn’t invited the Toyota to overtake (a story that first broke on this website). The stewards met at the next race, and Hamilton was excluded.

Anyway, on Tuesday I re-Tweeted the Vettel/Vergne clip and forwarded to the relevant people at the FIA simply asking if they had investigated it or had any thoughts on it. They didn’t know anything about it, and duly began to have a look into the matter.

However no sooner had I Tweeted the link than other fans pointed out head-on screen grabs on forums which appeared to show a green flag earlier on the straight. Later video clips appeared showing the same thing from Vettel’s cockpit – the problem was that in the original clips we saw the flag not only passed by very quickly, but was obscured by an FOM graphic.

Once I realized that there was a green flag in play it seemed to me that it was a non-story. It’s fundamental that a waved flag has priority over any electronic system. Thus if a driver sees a green flag he knows the yellow zone is ended, and he can pass again, even if he hasn’t passed a lit panel and his dash is still yellow.

The drivers are reminded constantly about this in briefings, and they know how to react, which is why just after the flag Vettel used KERS and made the flag. The fact that he could spot the flag when he had plenty of other things to occupy his attention says a lot about the guy’s talent – the very best drivers are able to multi task and are always aware of what’s going on around them.

While it hadn’t been discussed by the FIA at the time – nobody had flagged it up to race control because there was no reason to discuss it – it was obvious that there was no need for any action, and it was one of those fun little stories that get people excited on the internet.

I was thus amazed on Wednesday evening when a colleague from the BBC website contacted Ferrari and was told that the team was reviewing the situation – and in the story he wrote he made it clear that the team might contact the FIA for clarification. It had to be done urgently given that any challenges to the World Championship result had to be made by today (November 30).

In fact on Wednesday the team did write to the FIA requesting clarification, although initially journalists were told only that the team was reviewing the evidence. However, that was already enough to create media storm that raged for the next 24 hours.

Unfortunately Ferrari had been stirred into responding by the original video, which as noted was intriguing, but the team either discounted or somehow didn’t see the contradictory evidence, despite it being widely available and circulating on the net.

Nobody would have had an issue had Ferrari reported the incident with the FIA during the race, or even in its immediate aftermath, before the results were official. Teams are always contacting race control pointing out potential indiscretions by others, in the hope of generating penalties.

One wonders why at this critical race the team did not have a staff member dedicated to following the Vettel on-board feed and looking out for yellow flag passes, any advantage gained from an off-track excursion, or other possible crimes. If they did have someone doing that job, and he didn’t spot the Vergne incident, then perhaps the team should be asking him why he didn’t – and why the team had to rely like the rest of us on a few fans drawing their attention to the relevant clip.

The team was within its rights to ask for the clarification, but was it wise to do so before examining all the evidence that was on the net, and easily available? And was it wise to get the media and fans excited by dropping a big hint before confirming a day later that the letter had indeed been written?

Until the FIA began to respond and tell journalists that there was “no case to answer” – due to the green flag – chaos reigned. Inevitably some journalists went a little overboard, missing or ignoring the green flag angle, and in effect spreading the message that Vettel had got away with cheating and that Ferrari was out for justice.

The point is that the team could have taken all the information on board, discussed it internally, and even had informal discussions with the FIA. What it did, knowing that inevitably some of the dirt thrown would stick on Vettel and Red Bull, was at best unsporting, and at worst, irresponsible.

A jubilant Sebastian Vettel is mobbed after winning the World Championship in Brazil. (Photo: Getty Images)

The team’s first contact with the media could have been to say that while it had noted with interest the stories on the internet the team accepted that there was no issue, wished Sebastian Vettel well, and looked forward to 2013.
Instead a similar message emerged rather too late, after the damage had been done – and without any form of apology to Red Bull and Vettel.

Today’s statement said: “The request for a clarification from the FIA, regarding Vettel’s passing move on Vergne, came about through the need to shed light on the circumstances of the move, which came out on the Internet only a few days after the race. The letter to the FIA was in no way intended to undermine the legality of the race result.

“We received tens of thousands of queries relating to this matter from all over the world and it was incumbent on us to take the matter further, asking the Federation to look into an incident that could have cast a shadow over the championship in the eyes of all Formula One enthusiasts, not just Ferrari fans.

“Ferrari duly takes note of the reply sent by the FIA this morning and therefore considers the matter now closed.”

Today at a press event in Madrid Stefano Domencali tried to back pedal, and he did at least acknowledge that Vettel had been a victim, although there was no apology: “It was incumbent on us to ask the Federation for a clarification, given everything that was going round on the Internet. We had no intention of belittling the merit of the title winner, but it was right to have the matter completely cleared up. The FIA has replied and we have noted their answer and now consider the matter to be closed.”

It was all so unnecessary, and in the end, Ferrari has shot itself in the foot and come out of this looking like a bad loser, when it could so easily have displayed a lot more class. If you think I’m over reacting a bit, consider how angry Bernie Ecclestone was when it all blew up...

I was mightily impressed on Sunday night by the way both Alonso and Domenicali accepted defeat after coming so close – they knew that they had done their best over the last few races, and at the end of the day Vettel and Red Bull didn’t drop the ball when the going got tough. The bottom line was that the F2012 wasn’t quick enough.

My sympathies certainly lay with Ferrari, or more specifically Alonso, on Sunday. I suspect I’m not the only lover of this sport who might not feel quite the same way after this week...

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED