Vettel denies turning left into Leclerc

2019 F1 season

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Sebastian Vettel insisted he did not trigger the collision between the two Ferrari drivers by turning left into his team mate.

Vettel and Charles Leclerc retired after making contact on the straight between turns three and four on lap 66 pf Sunday’s race.

Asked whether he felt he turned too much towards his team mate Vettel replied “No. I was going straight.”

“I had a better run out of the chicane, tried to pass, and then we touched,” Vettel added.

Leclerc insisted he left room for his team mate. “I overtook in turn one,” he said. “Then on the run to turn four I closed the door.

“I was aware he was on the outside, I left a little space but enough for him. And then I think he tried to squeeze me a little bit towards the inside. And we were very close so we touched straightaway and I had a puncture.”

The pair avoided any official sanction over the incident. The stewards ruled “neither driver is predominantly at fault”.

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However both drivers are being called to meet Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto at their Maranello base this week. Ferrari imposed team orders on its drivers earlier this year but Binotto said the pair had been allowed to fight each other in Brazil.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Interlagos, 2019
Both drivers retired due to damage
“When we tried to manage the drivers this season we have been criticised [for] doing it,” he said. “And when they are free to fight we may be criticised because of ‘free to fight’.

“I think there is always a reason for what we are deciding to do and today it was right to let them race, certainly, because we [already] secured the second place in the constructors championship.”

Binotto said the team needs to “clarify within the team what’s silly and what’s not, what are the limits of the actions.”

“When you’ve got a crash, something was wrong. No doubt. But when you’re free to fight, you’re free to fight and that’s a driving matter: how much you can take as a risk. But certainly here today the risk was not necessary.”

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121 comments on “Vettel denies turning left into Leclerc”

  1. From those pics it does show how Leclerc loves to stop in middle of track in defence while Vettel is pushing towards the left(for a left hand corner ahead). Even when Vettel was ahead Leclerc didnt move out of the way.

    1. For a left hand corner you’d want to stay right until turn in, not coast over to the left in the hundreds of metres running up to the corner and making the corner tighter for yourself when you reach it. Especially for that particular corner.

      Vettel moved in a part of the track he didn’t need to, to try and force Leclerc to back off completely so Vettel could enter the next corner unchallenged, and in doing so took him and his teammate out of the race. To say he didn’t move left at all is to deny basic facts. Come on now.

      1. You can move to the left in a straight line.
        Both are at fault as part of a team ( not teammates)

        1. You can move left in a straight line.

          Not if there’s another car there…unless you want to cause a crash.

          Let’s not forget that Vettel has form for causing this exact sort of accident in the past.

          1. I think erikje is rebutting Vettel’s assertion that he wasn’t turning left but straight – so he’s also blaming Vettel for the incident

      2. To begin with Leclerc didnt leave vettel enough room at the start and he stopped instead of continuing to move left in defense. Since monza whatever little trust they had in each other is lost.

        1. Leclerc did leave Vettel enough room. The pictures show he gave him just over a car’s width.

          1. Look at the first picture, there is clearly more than a cars width.

        2. Why would he unnecessarily compromise his line more than he needs to? Leclerc did absolutely nothing wrong, he left space for vettel and was going straight the whole time – which vettel could see from the beginning.

          1. and was going straight the whole time

            with a car in your track that is not the smart thing to do, as proved.

          2. He can’t expect his team mate turning into him – or anyone turning into him for that matter.

      3. DavidDesu I guess he wanted to edge to the left more and more to ensure the angle would be too sharp for Lec and he’d have to brake sooner. Vet of course wouldn’t stay to the left, he would at the last moment go all the way to the right to make his corner rounder and take it at much faster speed, pretty much how Ham drove around him at the start into turn one. Of course they are all racing drivers and Lec knew what Vet was doing, hence keeping his line and let Vet decide if he wanted to crash into him.

        1. @ivan-vinitskyy +1 Perfectly put. Vettel’s ‘drift’ left was intended to compromise Leclerc’s angle into the corner, slowing him, when he himself would be free to move right and maintain speed.

          If you’re making a pass, the driver being passed is under no obligation to give you more track space then necessary, particularly when the sole reason for ceding space would be for the other driver to slow you down.

          This swiping across the track, threatening other drivers, is a Vettel standard. Amazingly – as at Canada or Mexico against Hamilton this year – he claims that he never sees where the other driver is. It’s one reason why he doesn’t deserve elite driver allocade, it’s a desperate tactic used to compensate for a lack of actual racing ability.

          1. Mark in Florida
            20th November 2019, 0:26

            @david-br I couldn’t have said it better. I’m usually pretty tolerant of opinions that differ from mine but….to say that it was both of their faults is to be completely blind to the evidence at hand. Vettle did his classic squeeze move into the other car. Leclerc stayed straight and even moved somewhat to the left. This wasn’t about a pass for Vettel, it was a message to stay out of my way! Apparently Leclercs not listening. The old Lion gets moved out and the new lion moves in.

          2. Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a Vettel only standard. Just look at Leclerc himself against Norris in the same race… If Norris hadn’t had viper reactions it would have been ha big crash much earlier. That is, Leclerc clearly expects others to move so why shouldn’t he?

            To me, it seems that it is something most drivers tend to do. This time Vettel might have misjudged it a bit and I agree that it might have been more is fault, but I don’t see why all the hate. They could both have done more to avoid the accident.

          3. @meck It’s not hate. I actually quite like Vettel off track, but on track I think this swipe has been a career constant. It’s even evident in the Baku incident where he swiped at Hamilton’s car at a restart. Just to be clear, that was an action unparalleled in Formula 1’s entire history: deliberately swiping a car into another on track but not under full racing conditions. It was again evident as recently as Mexico where Vettel deliberately pushed Hamilton onto the grass, which if Masi and the FIA stewards were fit for purpose, they would have penalized. Vettel causes these crashes under high speed. It’s dangerous, as Brazil showed, contact under such conditions being potentially devastating. I can’t see the purpose in glossing over this fairly gross defect in his driving.

    2. Jesus this level of mental gymnastics is comparable only to trump supporters

      1. Trump supporters also deny turning left.

        1. Haha, good point XD

      2. Love it Carlos. Within the bounds and a fair comment. Perhaps Sebastien could be asked if he thought he was veering left at all. He would then perhaps argue that he held the steering wheel straight after choosing his line of trajectory and the wind pushed him into Leclerc at the last moment. I had to say it as I think this is his only way out. What else could there be? Let’s see. I’m nervous now. :-)

      3. It is amazing, isn’t it? I have never seen this kind of behaviour from any fans before, not Prost, Senna, Schumacher or Alonso fans. It really is only Seb who can do no wrong, so obviously his usual game of blaming everyone but himself does seem to work for his fans. Even when it’s clearly layed out in front of their eyes that his signature move – steering into another car – once again didn’t work.

        1. I’m glad someone else has seen it.

          It’s absolutely baffling.

        2. So what about 1st lap moves by Leclerc in Hungary on Bottas and 1st lap on Norris? Please explain those two.

    3. are you blind?

    4. Yes leclerc drives like anyone on the grid, I agree.
      Maybe Vettel didn’t turn left, might have been aero wake, anyway the car turned left and he is driving the car.
      The moment was beautiful, I must admit I loved it.
      Enough choking Vettel is not right for Ferrari, he needs RedBull.

    5. Nor should he have moved out of the way… It’s the same stupid mistake that Vettel made against Webber in Turkey.

  2. I feel like this Vettel quote may be from right after the race. Now, two days later, I think Vettel would admit to not going straight. It’s very clear he is pushing Leclerc toward the other side of the track, and Leclerc is not letting Vettel do it. Both could have avoided the crash, but Vettel caused it.

    1. Very accurate observation @chrischrill

    2. Well if they both drove straight line in that part of the track where there is no corners it’s quite strange thing to crash. :)

      1. @chrischrill Looking at the picture above where they make contact, there is almost enough space at the side of Vettel’s car for ANOTHER car! The rules say he only needs to leave one car’s width. Vettel drove into him. End of discussion.

  3. Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
    19th November 2019, 12:00

    No Labour aren’t moving to the left, nor is he.

  4. One needs new glasses and it’s not me. Look how close to the the line is Vettel at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and final (collision) photos! In the final photo one can see that there is even a room for another car on the right side from Vettel. And still he lies!

    1. @bulgarian

      They don’t call him baby Schumi for nothing. He might not drive as well as Schumi.. But he definitely has the “I can do no wrong” attitude.

      Why are we even surprised with who’s at fault at who accepts the blame. Vettel thought he was innocent after Baku 2017, where he intentionally banged wheels with Hamilton. How do you expect a driver like him actually accepting fault for an incident like this?

      1. Actually an interesting thing I read about Schumacher is that, while immediately after an incident of the type between Leclerc and Vettel, or even worse (say slamming into the back of Coulthard in the rain), Schumi was absolutely convinced of the truth of his perception of events. But once he saw the replay he’d acknowledge that he was mistaken.

        Will Seb be that humble? Or simply internally acknowledge the truth while outwardly putting on a face? I really wonder. This feels like Turkey 2010 all over again.

        1. @wushumr2 I’m not sure schumacher was always that sanguine – he famously met with coulthard in monza in 1998 (the race after their Spa crash) and did not quite agree he was partly to blame. perhaps he came to this realisation in later years. i have never heard him show any kind of remorse for jerez 1997, but again, perhaps this came in later years (though I feel like it would have been big news).

    2. @bulgarian

      Exactly! The pictures are clear as day! I’d like to think that Seb will view the evidence and apologise, but do danger there!

      Seb’s time is up. He has wasted the seat at Ferrari for the last couple years. Another top line driver may have pushed Lewis harder, but no, this guy has been busy crashing into others, his teammate and plain old just crashing all by himself.

      I never had anything against Seb. He was a one trick pony that exploited Adrian Newey’s supreme blown diffusers back in the day, and fair to him for doing that, make the most of what you’ve got. But as Fernando said at the time, those titles are hurting him now.

  5. When comparing Leclerc’s placement with the pit lane exit line it also looks as though he has also moved across to his left with the effect of giving Vettel more space. I know perspective and angles and all that, but the culpability for this seems crystal clear.

  6. Both are at blame, arguably Vettel a little more than Charles

    but my question is, what is the point of this article? With statements made just after the race? Trying to make Vettel sound like a stubburn kid? Not saying that he isn’t (all of them are really), but don’t to try as hard, especially when there were new news about this yesterday after the meeting in Maranello

    Feels a bit click-baity doesn’t it?

    1. Agree, it has to be clarified if these comments are the ones from immediately after the race, or made 2 days later. In the heat of the moment people are somewhat more excused from taking blame, but if Seb maintains his position after this time then he needs his eyes checked.

      1. Peter Waters (@)
        19th November 2019, 23:16

        Seb should go to Specsavers :)

    2. It seems popular for a while to bash Vettel regardless of whether he does well, badly or indifferently.

      1. In this case I do agree with the majority that Vettel was at fault, but in the specific case of this article it can be seen as misrepresenting his opinion on the incident, which is not fair.

        1. agree, but feel it is only marginal, Charles could have done more too really, I mean he certainly saw Seb and hardly made an attempt to move, and the contact is with is front right

          Vettel also might have kept is steering straight, which doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to the left, had drafts and whatnots and puff, both Ferraris out. It funny because it was such a small contact

          Racing incident was the right decision though, despite that margin that you can point at Vettel

          I would also blame Ferrari, they put their driver in different strategies after the field is bunched up, they have essentilly put their drivers in a collision course, one with new the other with old tyres. And then proceed not to manage the situation and just let them be

          I appreciatte that they let them race, but if you are going to do it, you also have to ensure that you put both in a similar situation,otherwise they will do the best they can to keep their positions with the material that they have, and push beyond the limit, as was the case

    3. @johnmilk To be clear, the quote is from after the race, and I might have run it sooner had I come across it sooner. But there were a lot of other important stories to cover last weekend – Gasly, Sainz, Hamilton, Verstappen, Albon etc… Things have to be prioritised and I prefer not to run several consecutive stories on the same subject if I can avoid it. As far as I’ve seen this quote has been largely overlooked elsewhere, and it states Vettel’s opinion on the collision far more clearly than the PR-friendly “it’s a shame for the team” quotes he and Leclerc were told to give by Binotto.

      1. Well said 👍. I hadn’t heard this quote until you published it.
        Keep up the good work racefans.net

      2. @keithcollantine you did run two articles on the subject on Sunday, one of them with Leclerc’s quotes and the other with Binotto’s. All of them spoke roughly at the same time, Binotto probably was the last one to speak about it, or interviewd about it

        Yes the quote might have been overlooked elsewhere, that in itself isn’t really a reason to not post it, it just shows that it was overlooked here as well, but surely you can understand that if you post it two days later without any context and with such title it reads as if Vettel is not acepting any blame for the crash, which leads the reader to interpretate that even after viewing the accident he stills feels the same, which might be true, I give you that, but especially after the news yesterday this just feel like you are trying to grab attention to an article that should exist, sure, but not today, it should have been put together with the other two if you didn’t want to keep posting about the same subject over and over

        just my point of view obviously

      3. To be clear, the quote is from after the race, and I might have run it sooner had I come across it sooner.

        You could have included that in the article, @keithcollantine.
        For most quotes it’s also relevant when & where (which situation) they were made.
        Leaving that out, and promoting it as headline, smells a bit ‘click-baity’ as @johnmilk argues.

    4. What does Leclerc have blame for, for not avoiding vettel?!?. Leclerc has literally zero reason to move he gave vettel more then enough room its not Leclerc’s fault that vettel has the racecraft of an amateur go kart driver

      1. @carlosmedrano – Says it all really

      2. Leclerc has literally zero reason to move

        not if you want to sacrifice your tires indeed ;)

      3. Just take it like this, as soon as Vettel passed Lecler on a full car length he is allowed to move either right or left whatever he wants, right ?
        He is allowed to make a one move – does he ?
        So, Lecler just bumped him:)

    5. Anyone who watched the race and was paying attention during the post race interviews knows that it was directly after the race. So drop that one right now. There is history here that Sebastien needs to answer for as far as I am concerned. Paying he is big time. If you are going to lie on a regular basis then at some stage you are going to be called out for it – as has happened here. There are consequences. Whether it was directly after the race or weeks later is irrelevant. Truth is truth and lies are lies. Stop being petulant Sebastien and deal with it like a true man should. I applaud Keith for bringing this out into the light of day. Hamilton has matured as a person in a lot of regards. If only Sebastien would do the same.

  7. To quote Horner from Multi-21: “Come on Seb, this is silly.”

  8. One thing to take into account is that a car coming from the corner wants to continue its turning unless the driver pushes the wheel to straighten it out. Max has a tendency to “let the car do what it wants to do” coming f on a corner. He does this to maximize the acceleration by reducing the forces on the wheels as little as possible (steering). That would explain the move Vettel makes, which he claims wasn’t turning… He didn’t move left intentionally, he drifted left because of maximizing the acceleration by reducing input.
    Not saying this is fact. But it matches his view of things and the positioning of the car.

    1. Yeah, it looks very often lately that Vettel doesn’t know the basics about racing anymore and needs to hear theoretical courses for a Superlicence.

  9. So basically the defence is I didn’t turn left. My car was pointing left but I went in a straight line to my left and I hit my teammate to my left, but I didn’t turn left.

    1. Exactly. Vettel’s trajectory is straight line. He didn’t change the course, as those photos show. That’s what he meant.

      1. these two comments are a very simple way of explaining it. I didn’t see it as vettel “turning” left either. howver, from a picture on another forum, it looked like leclerc suddenly stopped giving him space for no reason and actually turned his wheel slightly towards Vettel. http://www.kepfeltoltes.eu/images/2019/11/18/678Screenshot_2019_11_18_.jpg

        So really, no action over the incident was the right decision, and i don’t think i put any more blame on Vettel than Leclerc.

        1. it looked like leclerc suddenly stopped giving him space for no reason and actually turned his wheel slightly towards Vettel.

          Watch the actual onboard, 1 frame of right movement means nothing when his steering wheel was constantly juddering left and right. Total joke.

          1. I didn’t see vettel actually turn left though. He was angled left coming out the corner. he decided to keep going, but leclerc looked like he decided to stop turning away from Vettel IMO. Plus it had no further action. So I personally think they both share some of the blame. Anyway, they may also not have taken action as most of the time, such a gentle touch won’t have caused a double DNF. if they base it on the contact rather than the outcome, it really wasn’t that bad.

          2. @thegianthogweed No you did not see that. Perhaps you (incorrectly remember it) but Vettel wasn’t angled coming out of the corner. They were both on the outside and Leclerc moved left to cover the inside line (with vettel following in his slipstream). Vettel moved to outside of Leclerc. Then Vettel drove for quite a while straight alongside the white line and next to Leclerc all the way to the right. Only after he was almost past Leclerc did he suddenly veer left.

            Vettel moves left (following Leclerc), right (moving to the outside of Leclerc) , straight (while passing Leclerc) and then left (crashing into Leclerc).

          3. If Vettel was found guilty of this infringement by the stewards and received further penalty points on his licence, it would have pushed him back to automatic one race ban territory. Regardless, maybe that’s why the stewards chose to abstain as it could become costly if he ends up with a ban next season with this infringement effectively topping up his already high tally. It’s almost guaranteed Vettel will receive more next season, He’s so ham fisted!

        2. It’s bizarre how people are blowing this up into a big incident, when in fact the remarkable thing is not that two cars brushed each other in close racing, but that such a tiny touch somehow took both cars out of the race.

          Vettel made a misjudgement of a couple of inches in placing the car, that’s all.

          1. Vettel made a misjudgement of a couple of inches in placing the car, that’s all.

            At high speed and when he was clearly trying to push Leclerc into a narrower angle for the corner. If you’re going to do that, there’s no excuse for misjudging a couple of inches.

    2. @bealzbob That’s not what happened though. Vettel went straight for a while and only veered left after his front wheel passed that of Leclerc

  10. Vettel is 100% correct.
    The straight to turn 4 runs almost perfectly south to north.
    Whilst Vettel was driving north the earth tuned a bit (sorry flat earthers, you don’t get this) to the right.
    And whilst Vettel drove a perfectly straight line it appeared that he turned left, but it was actually the earth turning right.
    It was actually remarkable, at the rotational speed of the earth, that he did not end up more to the left :P

    1. 🤣🤣
      Brilliant !! 👏

    2. You see that’s where you’re wrong. The Great A’tuin had to make an emergency maneuver to avoid an incoming comet and that threw Vettel off course into Leclerc! :P

    3. Funniest comment of the day.

    4. Foucault’s Ferrari

  11. I doubt he did it deliberately but you can’t argue the fact he moved left whilst still alongside Leclerc.

    1. Vettel was at the same angle from coming out the corner and didn’t change it he was angled left but did nt turn left. Leclerc changed line when he had been a long side vettel for a while and actually did turn to the right slightly. I think this is why they may have left it and not investigated it further.

      http://www.kepfeltoltes.eu/images/2019/11/18/678Screenshot_2019_11_18_.jpg

      1. You might want to try a video of Leclerc’s camera, Vettel clearly moved to the left once he thought he was past. Leclerc’s only actual movement was to the left following the impact.

      2. @thegianthogweed Yes because one frame of a jittering steering wheel tells more than a car moving 3 meters to the left.

  12. So Vettels did the same to Leclerc as Leclerc did to Hamilton in Monza, and Leclerc also did to Norris earlier in this race?
    And as we also saw from Monza qualifying Leclerc has no respect for his own team mate or team orders.
    So all in all Seb did the right thing by squeezing Leclerc and then making sure the reason given was a total nonsense that everyone could spot from a mile off.

    1. Leonard McCullough
      19th November 2019, 20:54

      I absolutely agree, leclercis not a team player,hasn’t been since the beginning of the season, he knew vettel would pass him but didn’t bugde an inch to help.

  13. Not surprised this is the same guy that said this quote after baku “when did I do dangerous driving”, let me guess vettel fans he didn’t turn right then too?

  14. This is why ricciardo is 10x the driver vettel will ever be. Ricciardo makes a mistake owns up to it and then makes up for it by finishing in the points, vettel makes a mistake blames the strategy, the team, the other driver anyone but himself. You would think with all the mistakes vettel does he would learn by now how to handle himself after a mistake

    1. Saint Ricci.. very good driver with some delusional fans it seems.

      1. Year, kingmaster of overtaking, just showed enough…

    2. Jonathan Parkin
      19th November 2019, 17:00

      He also wins races from below 3rd on the grid

    3. @carlosmedrano That’s not always true of Vettel. I can think of an example from this season: he admitted immediately he was to blame when he hit Verstappen at Silverstone.

      1. @keithcollantine
        Not immediately, on the radio in the car he blamed Verstappen. Vettel did not admit blame until later. Not that it is important.

  15. So sad Sebastian. When will you grow up. Try taking Hamilton’s example in how to be a mature multiple world champion for once!

  16. Vettel’s time is running our at Ferrari and I think he’s getting desperate. Either he accepts the role Raikkonen had as the mature old champion who doesn’t cause a fuss or retire. He’s costing Ferrari too many points with errors and crashes and clearly is never going to be champion in red.

    1. The most accurate post!

  17. “When did I do dangerous driving?”

  18. There’s precedent for adjudging Vettel responsible, see Ham/Bot on same straight 2013. The driver going diagonally rather than straight was judged at fault

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2G2eA-QmVg

    When it’s two team mates colliding the stewards rarely interfere, see Spa 2014 and Barcelona 2016. Also several Perez/Ocon incidents, were they ever called before the stewards, I can’t recall.

  19. Hmmm, started the straight on the right, moved exceedingly to the left in a straight line. :D While technically that is not turning left, but it is still moving left. Meanwhile Leclerc left cars width room on the right, and extended that room to two cars width + some cyclist lane etc.

    I am disappointed. Lewis did far less questionable crash in to Albon and admitted to it right away. This is how it’s done. I cannot believe Lewis is now the role model for honorable racer, but it has come to this.

    1. You know you can draw a straight but diagonal line? Even if Vettel went far further across the track, had he angled it like that at the end of the corner, he will have gone well – straight. He started on the right, but at a slight angle. I don’t think he was steering, but because of the angle he was at, even going straight will have took him across the track a little. I still think Vettel’s explanation is correct. He didn’t “turn” left as Leclerc was there. He had he car angled that direction already when he went round the corner and to me, leclerc stopped giving him more room. I think it will be because of this that there was no further action.

      1. Leclerc didn’t need to give him more room!

  20. The track turned right then, Seb?

    1. Track?!
      Think bigger!

      The Earth was moving at the time, and just shifter the road position under Seb’s car!

  21. I suspect Seb will be walking back this comment after they had time to share video & data from the cars. He always seems to need a few days to walk back on his proclaimed innocence :)

    1. @blueruck

      He always seems to need a few days to walk back on his proclaimed innocence :)

      Does he even give interviews between race-weekends?

      1. No but he does have the team release statements between races

  22. Vettel applied a great rule of thumb from rallying:
    “There is no such thing as narrow space only low momentum”.

    Additionally:
    Pulling off an overtake from the outside is not easy at all, and requires a lot of speed difference, and likely an initially better acceleration. Without the DRS rules he not even had the attempt.
    You can always back off.
    Even if you get a bit ahead you can screw it all if you can’t set up the car for the corner properly, like you can’t break enough, and have the worse line. He was not more than a bit ahead.
    Where there is an obstacle you may not pass succefully.
    Colliding with obstacles is not the best idea.
    Risking contact of rear wheels is even worse.

  23. In related news, MS denies parking his Ferrari at La Rascasse, deliberately turning into Damon Hill and Villeneuve. Piquet Jr. denies crashing his Renault in Singapore on purpose and Alonso denies McLaren received spied data from Ferrari.

    Denial is a word with at least a couple of meanings

    1. Almost always the stewards did not penalize the driver (severely) unless he admitted to doing something wrong. Which for drivers of course meant that admitting to anything was stupid because there is no penalty for lying. Only time you can be caught of lying if you say one thing to fia and another thing to the team and fia can actually prove it with evidence. This has happened couple of times in very recent history I think. I do vaguely remember one thing about hamilton where he said one thing on radio and another thing later to the stewards.

      So what if vettel had admitted that he crashed into hamilton on purpose? It doesn’t help him at all. Same with schumi parking in monaco. There is 0 incentive and 0 reward to tell the truth and 100 million reasons to lie or play dumb or feign ignorance. If you lie and it goes through you are free. It makes it easy for your team to defend you. You get to play the victim card, complain about hard racing and fia gets to say it is racing incident. If you lie and they still think you deserve a penalty you get a small penalty. If you admit to it you get a bigger penalty.

      When schumi parked in rascasse his penalty was to start from the back of the grid. If he had admitted to stopping there on purpose he would have gotten more severe penalty. He had no reason to tell the truth. Even with piquet jnr they had all the evidence they needed. Telemetry showed him pressing the throttle to spin the car on purpose but things only started to happen when he confessed. Had he stayed silent fia would have been happy to not do anything about it. It is almost symbiotic. Fia wants to pretend the drivers and teams are honest and the drivers and teams want to pretend to be honest. Nobody is that honest when it is wins, careers and championships on the line.

  24. I’ll stick to what I said earlier, Leclerc made a slight twitch towards Vettel first. Then Vettel returned the favour but overdid it.

    The still photos lose that small movement.

    1. No he didn’t. The steering wheel will always move slightly left and right. So that’s meaningless. The actual video shows Leclerc going perfectly straight until Vettel cuts left into Leclerc’s front right wheel.

  25. Maybe vettel did not turn left. It could be tectonic plates moving. Vettel was simply caught out by the road suddenly curving.

  26. Vettel at fault but Leclerc could have moved a little to the left…..Is there anyone out there surprised Vettel would move over??..thought so.
    What amazed me was the damage caused…obviously hit a weak point….but we have seen Kimi and Seb using the Ferrari as a battering ram…and just carrying on…very strange..

  27. Baku seb is back.

  28. From an italian newspaper Seb started admitting his fault: “I thought I was completely up front when I moved,” he would have confessed to some of the team’s technicians

    1. Anycase after the crash Seb and Charles didn’t speak, also they were in the same plane S.Paulo-Zurich back home and never speaked all time. They sat far away each other. Games of war.

    2. Sebastian must apologize to everyone in Ferrari including Charles Leclerc, not just to some of the team’s technicians.

  29. geoffgroom44 (@)
    19th November 2019, 22:21

    What has happened in the past is not a good guide to any present incident.All drivers, it seems, are open to a momentary lapse of concentration or judgement, That is the nature of a sport where 100ths of a second can decide the victor.We cannot expect perfection 100% of the time and on those occasions when a driver falls short, the first criteria i view..is whether that driver is mature enough to accept the responsibility and progress beyond the error.I am not a Ferrari fan, but equally I do not wish to see 2 superb drivers and an impressive team humiliated like this.For goodness sake, one of you – Seb or Charles (the order of names is in age order, no other order) – take responsibility.

  30. That is trademark Vettel-squeeze right there. Similar to Singapore 2017, Turkey 2010.
    Vettel should say what Sainz said post race “go go squeeeeeze”

  31. This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue over who turned into who.

    But seriously, the scary thing is that both Ferrari drivers would have driven differently if the driver next to them was from another team. Not sure it is really fixable unless they have some agreement that which ever one qualifies in front of the other, gets to pass during a race or one gets a clean pass on odd numbered laps and the other on even laps.

  32. Leclerc’s distances to his right hand side of the track (Vettel’s side) are 2.5m, 2.6m, 2.9m, 3.7m in photos 1 to 4. Even ignoring the last photo that could be some reaction to the impact, in photo three there are 1.5x a car width for Vettel to drive through, and it is increasing.
    Leclec has been guilty of some bad driving this year, but I cannot see any way he can be responsible here.

  33. It’s so strange what’s happening in some people minds here. Seems to be a combination of actual delusion and or denial in the face of overwhelming evidence. Very strange and very interesting.

    1. @moshambles that’s Vettel fans. I’m surprised nobody has blamed the unSTaBle rEaR (another firm favourite Sebfosi excuse)

    2. Cognitive dysfunction syndrome

  34. Vettel is a liability.

  35. “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”

  36. Vettel nearly crashed into Hamilton at the star of Mexico also. The difference was that Lewis veered onto the grass to avoid a crash, just like he went onto the kerbs and grass to avoid Leclerc’s dirty chop in Italy.

    These Ferrari drivers reaped what they sowed. If only it had been for P1.

  37. Ian Leapingwell
    21st November 2019, 18:10

    Vettel had plenty of room on the right to get past Leclerc cleanly, but we very clearly see that he moved to the left squeezing into Leclerc resulting in the contact which took them both out!
    As usual, Vettel is lying about it.
    This is what Vettel does every time. Crashes and lies, crashes and lies.
    It is the behaviour of a very small child!
    When are Ferrari going to get rid of the German?
    This Vettel’s fault all day long.
    Charles was in no way to blame.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKYB4fDz5Vc

  38. Me say alone ramp.

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