FIA race director Charlie Whiting has told the drivers that he wasn’t happy with Sebastian Vettel’s move towards Lewis Hamilton in the Shanghai pitlane.
As the pair headed towards the pit exit Vettel veered towards the McLaren driver, who was on the inside, and Hamilton in return jinked towards the RBR in an attempt to hold his ground.
After the race both drivers received a reprimand from the FIA stewards, but sources say that Whiting made it clear in Friday night’s drivers briefing in Spain that he wasn’t happy with what Vettel had done, and indicated that a repeat would earn a more serious punishment than a reprimand.
The FIA has no problem with the principle of side-by-side drag race out of the pit lane, if the track layout allows it and the drivers give each other space.
Meanwhile in the same meeting Whiting confirmed that the FIA is not keen to mess with the qualifying format for Monaco, after drivers expressed fears that the six slower cars and a field of 24 would be lead to problems. The big problem for the quicker cars is that once a driver is on his hot lap, he is not obliged to move over or let another car past.
Adam Cooper F1 