Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel’s abrupt departure from the drivers’ briefing in Austria was caused by a lengthy rant by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, according to Auto Motor und Sport.
Vettel was given a 25,000 euro fine, suspended until the end of the season, for leaving the drivers’ meeting before being excused on Friday, and there were initial reports that the drivers had been arguing about driving standards before the German had enough and walked away.
However, it now transpires that Alonso is not done making his case about the penalty he received at the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year.
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The 40-year-old was penalised for moving excessively on the straight to defend from Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas, and he felt that Charles Leclerc had done the same thing in Silverstone to hold off Sir Lewis Hamilton, but was not given a penalty.
Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the Spaniard had also been speaking about Sergio Perez’s move on Leclerc the weekend prior, which took place off the track, leaving him “confused” as to the inconsistency from the stewards after he was punished for leaving the racetrack in Miami.
AMuS journalist Michael Schmidt believes that race control – headed up by co-race directors Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich – ignore the comments made by the drivers as to the decisions made in the hierarchy, so Alonso spent much of the meeting making his feelings known.
“Race control hears what the drivers are saying, but then doesn’t actually give any feedback and then does what they think is right,” he said.
“The whole thing started, as it seems to always be the case now, with a monologue from Alonso, who takes every opportunity now to show that the penalty he got in Canada was actually wrong.
“And whenever he sees someone doing the same thing but not being penalised, he shows his case and explains it in epic breadth and then tries to get confirmation from race control that he was wrongly penalised.”
Realising that the double world champion was not going to be finished any time soon, Vettel got up and walked out.
“And that went on for a relatively long time and it all went in circles and at some point, Vettel just snapped and left because they didn’t make progress,” explained Schmidt.
The German then joked that the four-time world champion will be equally irritated by incoming Alonso’s rant about the defensive move Carlos Sainz pulled on George Russell in Sunday’s race.
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“I already know how the next drivers briefing will be, the Sainz case will be revisited and then Seb will leave again,” quipped Schmidt.
Vettel’s fine will expire at the end of the 2022 season as long as he does not commit any similar offences before then.