FIA Rejects Red Bull's Request To Review Hamilton Penalty; Mercedes Issues Scathing Statement

A war is brewing on the cusp of the Hungarian GP between the top two teams and drivers in F1 in the aftermath of what was a polarising British GP that now will be remembered for years. Red Bull's appeal to the FIA to review the "lenient" penalty handed to Lewis Hamilton was rejected as the FIA claimed that Red Bull didn't introduce new evidence, but instead went to lengths to create new evidence. 

The evidence issued included a series of slides that Red Bull had created from the GPS data from the Verstappen and Hamilton crash that resulted in the Dutchman crashing out of the British GP. It also included a comparison of how Hamilton overtook Charles Leclerc to take the race lead and how he tried to overtake Verstappen as both moves happened at the same copse corner. 

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— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 29, 2021

Interestingly, one of the slides also includes a "reenactment" of the incident as Red Bull used its reserve driver Alex Albon during one of its recent filming days in the 2019 Red Bull to simulate what Hamilton attempted to prove that he wouldn't have made the corner indicating that perhaps that move was deliberate and was meant to intimidate Verstappen. 

The FIA stewards deemed this wasn't "significant and relevant new data" that was worthy of a review. 

"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," the FIA noted. 

Fireworks are in store as the knives are out between the two best drivers in the world 

The FIA also expressed some concern around the claims made in the letter in which Red Bull requested a review. It is unclear what was mentioned but there were some allegations made presumably so against Hamilton. 

"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," they added. 

As the ruling came out Mercedes issued a scathing statement against the Red Bull senior management. In the lead up to the hearing, Helmut Marko and Christian Horner had been lobbying for a race ban against Hamilton. Marko had said that Hamilton had destroyed Alex Albon's career and Horner described Hamilton's move as amateurish and desperate. 

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— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 29, 2021

As Verstappen ended up in the hospital after the crash, he criticised Hamilton's celebrations at his home race. Despite two weeks since the incident, Verstappen maintains his stance. 

"The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team welcomes the decision of the stewards to reject Red Bull Racing's right of review. In addition to bringing this incident to a close, we hope that this decision will mark the end of a concerted attempt by the senior management of Red Bull Racing to tarnish the good name and sporting integrity of Lewis Hamilton, including in the documents submitted for their unsuccessful right of review. We now look forward to going racing this weekend and to continuing our hard-fought competition for the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship," the team said pointing fingers at the comments made from members of the Red Bull team.