Vasseur jokes after losing out on P2 to Mercedes: ‘Toto won’t complain’

It all came down to the final lap in Abu Dhabi in terms of the battle for P2 in the constructors’ standings. Because of Sergio Perez’s five-second penalty, Ferrari lost out on finishing the season second behind Red Bull in the standings. Team principal Frederic Vasseur believes Perez’s penalty was harsh.

"I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know because, on my screen, I'm focused on the dot of the car. And I didn't see why Perez got the penalty. And had to ask to put it on my screen. Toto won't complain that the stewards are too harsh," Vasseur told GPblog among others following the race.

As Charles Leclerc said during the race over the team radio, they could have taken a riskier control with holding up George Russell so Perez could have a five-second gap to him. Vasseur doesn’t believe in such thing. "You could imagine blocking Russell, but then you have also to be sure that Perez is in between you and Russell. If you want to block Russell, it's a matter of hundreds of seconds. I'm not a big fan of this. We did our best in a fair way to let Perez go, to give him the DRS, and to try to help as much as possible. That would be too much."