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After Vettel controversy: FIA President protects Commissioners
FIA President Jean Todt opposes a change in the duel rules and finds criticism of race stewards unjustified
Even a week later, the penalty against Sebastian Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal theme number 1 behind the scenes of the premier class. The four race stewards, who have judged the incident with Lewis Hamilton and pronounced the five-second penalty, are sharply criticized by many fans around the world.
But FIA President Jean Todt now takes shelter from his commissioners: "We have the best commissioners in the world, they are doing a great job," he says, adding: "There is always debate about fines not unlike other sports too. "
The "referees" of Formula One, that's four different men at each Grand Prix (and sometimes, meanwhile, also ladies). Two of them are trained FIA officials who have been trained as race commissioners in special courses. Max Verstappen attended such a course at the end of 2018, and he was impressed by the professionalism of the training.
Commissioner number 3 is also nominated by the FIA. But this is not a classic functionary, but an ex-racing driver, who advises the panel as an expert and also has voting rights. And then there is a commissioner who is not nominated by the FIA, but by the national federation of the organizing country.
In Canada, that was Mike Kearne. As an ex-racing driver Emanuele Pirro was available. In addition, the FIA sent Gerd Ennser from Germany and Mathieu Remmerie from Belgium to Montreal. If there is a tie of 2: 2 then the chief commissioner decides. That was Ennser a week ago.
Anyway, the debate over the Vettel controversy in recent days has been more in the direction that the commissioners did not make the wrong decision, but that the rules they have chosen may be wrong and should be changed.
But FIA President Todt is opposed to easing the duels: "The drivers are the first to insist on compliance with all rules," he says. "When we start loosening it, it can sometimes make it dangerous, as you can see in Formula E, where riders have much more freedom than in F1."
By the way: Todt can not be carried away by the 'Bild' newspaper to declare the Vettel punishment as correct or overly hard. "This is not my job," he dismisses - and thus indirectly emphasizes that the FIA Commissioners act and decide completely independently of their president ...
This article was written by Christian Nimmervoll