Häkkinen: “Let the drivers race”

Mika Häkkinen commented on the penalty Sebastian Vettel inflicted on the Canadian GP last weekend, preventing the driver Ferrari to put an end to the invincibility of Mercedes this season.

“The only thing I can say about Sebastian Vettel's incident at the Canadian GP is that I would have done exactly the same thing as him. Like any pilot. When something goes wrong, our instinct is to recover quickly and keep our adversary behind us. This is completely normal and our rivals expect it,” recognized the double world champion in his column on Unibet.

“The penalty given to Sebastian ruined his race and left me perplexed. I wondered if the stewards could not examine the incident in more detail with the drivers and teams before making a decision…. They had a difficult choice to make and the rules are clear. Sebastian had lost control of his car and re-entered the track in a dangerous manner or he had regained control and blocked Lewis. The stewards had to impose a penalty in both cases. »

If Mika Häkkinen understands the decision of the commissioners, the former driver McLaren would have liked more indulgence from the race management.    

"He placed his car in the same way that Lewis did with his Mercedes in Monaco two weeks early while keeping Max Verstappen (Red Bull) behind him. Looking back on my career, I remember that Michael Schumacher and I had much more freedom. Maybe we didn't have as many cameras filming back then. We would have had a lot of penalties of 5 seconds, or worse, if we had driven with the current regulations. »

“The FIA ​​has done an incredible job to make the sport safer while the stewards have a difficult job to do, often with a lot of pressure. However, I think (all participants) need to let the drivers race, sometimes be realistic and think about the reputation of the F1. A new winner will arrive this year, but this penalty has postponed it. Everyone in F1 is now wondering how long this wait will last. »