Vettel “very bitter” after Hungary disqualification, wants F1 rule change

Vettel was excluded from the race results following his second-place finish at the Hungaroring after Aston Martin failed to supply an adequate fuel sample after the race.

The FIA could only extract 0.3 litres of fuel from Vettel’s car, even though Aston Martin believed there were 1.74 litres still in the car.

A fuel cell failure was the reason for Aston Martin’s inability to adhere to the FIA’s request, however, it wasn’t enough to stop Vettel from losing P2 in Hungary.

Reflecting on it ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Vettel said: “It’s obviously bitter. I think it was a great result for us as a team and a lot of points that we scored so very disappointing but I don’t think there’s much that we could have done.

“Obviously during the race we had the fuel under control, we thought so, but at the very, very end - I think it was the last lap - we found out that something might not be right and we were very surprised when the fuel was not in the car. So it’s very bitter but those are the rules so we have to accept and carry on.

“It was a very big day because also big points for us but we obviously have lots of races as I said before now and we try to squeeze some points in those.”

Vettel believes the fact Aston Martin didn’t gain an advantage by having slightly less fuel in the car at the end of the race should mean the FIA isn’t as harsh when it comes to handing out penalties.

“Well I guess rules are rules and obviously we didn’t know we had a problem to be honest,” Vettel added. “When we checked the fuel wasn’t in the car and we got disqualified but we thought it was in the car so I don’t know for future whether there’s a better way to handle this but I don’t think there was much that could have been done.

“It’s very bitter because first I think we did not have an advantage; second there was no intention or no way we could explain that too little fuel was in the car. So something happened over the course of the race - I don’t know, a leakage or something - that the fuel simply wasn’t there anymore. I don’t know, it’s probably more for the future.

“Looking back I think it’s clear, the rules are as they are, and we got disqualified. Looking forwards obviously it’s very bitter and I think in the circumstances I understand better because I was the one who suffered from it you don’t wish that to happen to anyone else and it should probably have a little bit more tolerance. But what exactly you should write down on paper in black and white I don’t know, that’s for other people to come up with.”