F1 News
FIA race director says Vettel's Canada penalty had no impact on Austria incident
- Bobby Vincent
FIA race director Michael Masi has claimed Sebastian Vettel's five-second penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix had no impact on the stewards' decision to let Max Verstappen off the hook following his incident with Charles Leclerc in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
Vettel was penalised five seconds of his time for rejoining the track in an "unsafe manner" and Lewis Hamilton was awarded the victory in Montreal despite the Ferrari driver crossing the line in P1.
Ferrari requested a review of the decision, but the FIA rejected that request as the Italian team did not have enough evidence to suggest a U-turn in decision.
Masi believes there has been no backlash following that decision and it has not put any more pressure on the stewards who decide on the extent of the penalties.
"I don't know that the pressure so much increased," Masi said to RaceFans. "Probably the pressure is always there on all of us to be quite honest. This is my ninth event in the role so for me the pressure's up here permanently.
"From the stewards' end they sit there and consider everything on its merits. So personally, I don't feel that there's any added pressure as a result of Canada or any other incident that has occurred.
"They're all esteemed ladies and gentleman in various fields of their own. They're all very experienced stewards and that is part of the role effectively of being an umpire at the end of the day."