Todt: Vettel's penalty was quite severe

Jean Todt expressed his desire to organize a meeting on July 3 following the incident between Sebastian Vettel et Lewis Hamilton at the Azerbaijan GP in Baku last June.

Despite the 10s sanction and the 3-point penalty imposed on the driver of the Team Ferrari for intentionally hitting the Mercedes of the Briton, the president of the FIA ​​wanted to think about other possible sanctions against the German who finally escaped a new penalty.

“Every incident is different, commented Jean Todt on Sky Sports. The FIA ​​and the stewards were criticized for not letting the race be fought, which I can understand... There was an unacceptable incident between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton before the restart. The commissioners were in charge of deciding what should be done. »

“I was watching with interest on TV to see what was going to happen, added Jean Todt. It would have made no sense for the FIA ​​president who follows the race from home to call the stewards to tell them what to do. The commissioners imposed a stop & go of 10 seconds, which is a severe sanction since it modified the result by making him lose half of the points. »

“As president of the FIA, I was uncomfortable with what I heard. There were some comments from the Scuderia and Sebastian Vettel that I didn't like... So we wanted to chat with Sebastian Vettel to understand better... It was also out of respect for Lewis Hamilton to clarify the fact that He wasn't responsible for what happened.", specified Jean Todt.

Sebastian Vettel has since apologized and will be tasked with promoting the values ​​of motorsport in promotional disciplines for a period of one year.