Ferrari ‘unhappy and disappointed’ with Canada review refusal

Ferrari appeared confident that “overwhelming” new evidence – as Sporting Director Laurent Mekies put it in the Friday press conference for the French Grand Prix – would help convince the FIA to review their decision to award a controversial penalty to Sebastian Vettel for his incident with Lewis Hamilton last time out in Canada. But following the governing body’s refusal to do that, both Team Principal Mattia Binotto and Sebastian Vettel declared themselves “disappointed” with the outcome.

In a short statement given to the press on Friday evening at Paul Ricard, Binotto said: “Without commenting much on the decision, I think that no doubt as Ferrari, we are all very unhappy and disappointed. We are disappointed certainly for Ferrari, but also we are disappointed for the fans and for our sport, and we do not intend to comment any further.”

Pressed on whether the matter was now terminated, Binotto replied simply: “Yes.”

READ MORE: FIA reject Ferrari's request to have Vettel's Canada penalty reviewed

On finding out the decision at the end of Free Practice 2, Vettel – who finished the session in P4, with Ferrari over six-tenths off the leading time of Mercedes – echoed his boss’s sentiments.

“Disappointed,” he said. “Very disappointed.

“It’s disappointing for myself, disappointing I think for the team, disappointing for the sport and the fans so it's just a disappointment.”

Asked whether, given Ferrari’s new evidence – which had included a breakdown of the incident by former F1 racer Karun Chandhok shown on Sky TV – he really thought that the team had stood a chance of getting the incident reviewed, Vettel replied: “I think it was not just the decision, so yes we felt we had a chance. But the FIA didn't share that opinion.”

That means that the points situation post-Canada will be unchanged, with Vettel 62 points adrift of championship-leader Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.