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FIA rejects Red Bull's review of Hamilton's British GP penalty

Red Bull’s hopes of getting the FIA to review Lewis Hamilton’s British Grand Prix penalty have been dashed, after Formula 1 stewards rejected its request on Thursday.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B is loaded onto a truck after his crash

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B is loaded onto a truck after his crash

Sutton Images

With Red Bull believing that Hamilton’s 10-second penalty for causing the collision with Max Verstappen on the opening lap at Silverstone was too lenient, it wanted the FIA to look again at the crash.

However, under the FIA’s rules in the International Sporting Code, Red Bull needed to bring a “significant and relevant new element” to the stewards for the governing body to be convinced there was a case to look at.

Following a hearing at the Hungaroring on Thursday, at which representatives of both Red Bull and Mercedes were present, this new evidence was delivered to the stewards.

This evidence included a series of slides that Red Bull had created from GPS data of the Verstappen/Hamilton crash, plus a comparison with the overtaking move that Hamilton later did on Charles Leclerc.

There was also a slide that featured a re-enactment of Hamilton’s opening lap at Silverstone driven by Red Bull’s Alex Albon, which the FIA suggested had been completed last week.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W12

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W12

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

However, after looking at the matter, the FIA deemed that the new elements provided by Red Bull were neither significant nor relevant to the matter.

In a statement issued by the stewards, the FIA was clear that the slides were neither new nor ‘discovered’ as the rules demand.

It stated: “That what was presented to the Stewards was not "a significant and relevant new element [that was] discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned".

“The slides in Appendix 2 of the Competitor's letter that were relied upon as New Evidence were not "discovered" but created for the purposes of submissions to support the Petition for Review. And they were created based on evidence that was available to the Competitor at the time of the decision (namely the GPS data). That clearly does not satisfy the requirements of Article 14.”

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The decision to not accept the evidence means no further review of the British GP collision will take place – so Hamilton’s 10-second sanction stands firm.

Red Bull had been confident before the hearing that the new evidence it brought to the stewards would add a fresh dimension to the investigation.

Its motorsport advisor Helmut Marko had told German broadcaster RTL on Wednesday that it would: “bring new facts that were not available to us at the time of the race interruption or when the whole thing was dealt with.”

He added: "Those facts will be brought forward on Thursday, and we hope that that will [result in] a reassessment, because we still think that this penalty was too lenient for Hamilton.”

The FIA also expressed some ‘concern’ about claims made in the letter in which Red Bull requested the review of the Silverstone crash.

While it is unclear what these claims were, the FIA suggested they could have been relevant to the stewards if the review had gone ahead.

The FIA added: “The Stewards note, with some concern, certain allegations made in the Competitor's above letter.

“Such allegations may or may not have been relevant to the Stewards if the Petition for Review had been granted. The Stewards may have addressed these allegations directly in any decision that would have followed. The Petition having been dismissed, the Stewards make no comments on those allegations.”

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