Ferrari set to appeal FIA decision over Vettel penalty

Ferrari has notified the FIA of its intention to appeal the decision not to revisit Sebastian Vettel's penalty from the Mexican Grand Prix.

Vettel was penalised for moving under braking when defending against Daniel Ricciardo on the penultimate lap of the race, with the German demoted from third to fifth as a result of a ten-second time penalty. Vettel was unhappy at the time as he felt he had been backed into Ricciardo by Max Verstappen, who had not yielded position after running wide at Turn 1 when trying to hold off the Ferrari.

Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Ferrari requested the FIA review the penalty as it felt there were two new elements to reconsider. During an initial hearing, Ferrari argued the GPS data it presented was a new element - something the FIA refuted as it is available to all teams during the race - and that race director Charlie Whiting had the power to instruct Verstappen to give up the position to Vettel during the race, which the FIA said he did but is not obliged to do.

Following the initial hearing Friday, the FIA decided no new elements existed and decided not to reconsider the penalty.

With Ferrari having the right to appeal the decision under the International Sporting Code, the team has now informed the FIA it intends to do so, which would take the matter to the FIA International Court of Appeal.

It remains to be seen if Ferrari will press ahead with the appeal or withdraw its intention to do so after reviewing its options, as Mercedes has done on occasion this season. Ferrari now has 96 hours before it needs to make a final decision.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.