Vettel: Pitlane speed measuring wrong
Sebastian Vettel wants the FIA to change the way that the pitlane speed limit is measured in the wake of the penalty he was issued during the Singapore Grand Prix
The Red Bull Racing driver's hopes of victory were dashed when he was handed a drive-through penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the pits after his final stop.
Post-race analysis of Vettel's car by Red Bull Racing showed that his car had never actually exceeded doing 100 km/h limit in the pits. However, because Vettel had taken a slightly shorter route when he cut across the entry to the pits, the official measurements calculated that his car had travelled in excess of the speed limit between the entry and the exit.
Speaking ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Vettel reckoned that the FIA should come up with a different way of measuring the speed in the pits - rather than basing it simply on time and estimated distance.
"You have a pitlane speed limit and we were not speeding in the pitlane," he said. "What happened was there was a mistake in the measurement.
"We have a speed limit and you are allowed to choose your own line. There is a pit entry line which you are allowed to cross - some drivers did a little bit, some more, like I did. And obviously the way the speed is measured is that it is in divided sectors and obviously there has been a mistake in the calibration.
"So there should be a speed limit, not a speed distance limit. It should be independent from the distance you travel."
Vettel said he hoped the FIA would take on board what happened in Singapore and consider making changes for the future.
"We have our car data and we can see that we clearly never broke the speed limit," he said. "I'm obviously not happy, but at the end of the day things like that should never happen. It had quite a big influence on our race, but sitting here now, what can you do about it?
"I hope in the future that nothing like this happens to any of us because, as I tried to explain, we have a speed limit and it has to be independent of the distance we travel."
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