Sebastian Vettel has been given a reprimand by the FIA after his tyre smoking donut display after the Indian GP.
Officially it was for failing to proceed straight to parc ferme after the chequered flag ‘without unnecessary delay.’ In addition Red Bull Racing was fined €25,000 for failing to sufficiently ensure by radio that he went to parc ferme.
The punishment might have been worse but the stewards accepted that there were ‘special circumstances.’ Meanwhile Vettel told the FIA that he knew exactly what he was doing and thus it was no surprise when he was called up.
“I didn’t think about the donuts before the race today – it just happened,” said Seb. “My engineer directed for the usual procedure, but I said ‘not this time!’”
While fans may not welcome the decision the bottom line is that the FIA had to set a precedent by giving some sort of punishment, as the rules are clear to all drivers.
Given the coverage that his display will receive the 25K is probably a small price to pay…
Adam Cooper F1 
Frankly there is no real broughaha on the vettel win except maybe in RBR as he has no charishma and known to be rather stubborn and arrogant imagine if hamilton/Alonso/Kimi wins a WDC the spirits would be quiet different. Also most of vettels last ten wins were borring with no fight from other teams.
Another questionable aspect of RBR as a team is WHY only webbers car gets into trouble always why not vettel’s??????
I’d love to see someone different winning the title too, but it’s the fault of the others that they haven’t done a better job. As for Webber having a bigger share of the reliability problems, I suspect that is because Seb gets the job done when it matters in qualifying higher & racing from the front where it is easier to nurse the car, while Mark has to fight hard for every place & get his car hotter.
Wow, you sound frustrated …. why not just accept that the guy is a really good driver who has proven 4 seasons in a row that he knows what he is doing.
And besides: If you say Vettel is more arrogant than Hamilton or Alonso (!!!), then you really don’t know what you are talking about …
I sound frustrated because of vettels antics the affected party was Mark Webber . RBR simply at the cost of Mark Webber got Vettel all his titles and this is unpardonable. I would agree with you if not for this scenario sorry friend no offence meant but not at the cost of another sportsman RBR as a team have failed to live up to reality and have fluanted all rules of humanity in this matter.
Another questionable aspect of RBR as a team is WHY only webbers car gets into trouble always why not vettel’s?
>> In the after-race show on SkyF1, Ant Davidson briefly touched this topic. Ant quoted Sebastian Buemi, who is reserved driver at RedBull and partners Ant in WEC. Buemi said,”It’s not as if Vettel’s car doesn’t have issues, it’s just that they don’t make headlines, since he finishes the race while working on the issues.”
Hope buemi is right webbers car in trouble always and vettel getting an almost trouble free car
gowras, from RBR’s point of view it makes no sense to sabotage Webber’s car. The constructors championship is very important: prestige, more money, and best pit position. They can’t risk too many DNFs with either car, because even if one driver wins most races, another team can put both drivers on the podium in most races and win the constructors championship.
It is possible that one of the mechanics on one side of the garage is not as competent as the others, but again that can’t be on purpose because the team still wants both cars to finish, 1-2 if at all possible.
But now, if they want to ensure Vettel wins over Webber they can arrange that much more easily with differing pit-stop strategies. This actually does happen regularly (it’s a very good tactic) and that is your best shot at a conspiracy theory. But I’ll give you some advice as an old-timer who’s been there done that: let go of the conspiracies and respect every race driver and appreciate their skills, respect every team too, you’ll find yourself enjoying the races much much more.
ok friend understand your comments and also your kind sporting suggestion of respecting all drivers which is true in any kind of sport.Its just that i pitied Webber who seemed to be on the receiving end always for no fault of his sometimes and the way some of the RBR Honchos kept their promotion of Vettel relentlessly once they came to know they had a winner on hand its only fair that both drivers get similar cars and same tech support. As you said maybe this is how the F1 game is played you winsome and you lose some.
cheers
Lovely little face-saving move by FIA, and hats off to the new World Champion for properly celebrating his victory!
I’m glad he wrapped up the title in front of a crowd that celebrated with him, rather than the silly booing at earlier races. The donuts & getting out of the car in front of the main grandstand made great viewing.
Utterly pathetic. The lad had just won the title, his fourth in a row. He deserved to do this and more importantly the crowd who’d paid good money loved it.
No one is more of a Vettel hype skeptic than me, but for pity’s sake, him doughnut-ting and then standing on the car like that was a massive iconic moment. It actually reminded me of the way Freddie Mercury would pose or whatever, on stage. And it didn’t look forced or dumb, it worked fantastically was an image. (Yeah, I hated saying that!!!) What more positive image could the sport possibly want? He’s told to be more fan friendly (which I think is barking up the wrong tree), and he did, he entertained the crowd.
This is the thing. Im not as yet sold on Vettel being a proper Senna like “great” and all that, despite what we are sold by the F1 circus and its media sycophants, who frankly have to sell us that, but I am open to allow him to at least try. But here, its like he’s not even allowed to try.
I agree, Seb standing on his car just seconds after doughnuting it is one of the iconic images of modern F1. There really aren’t many recent images like that in the sport as, just like MotoGP, drivers/riders have to conserve engines so burnouts/doughnuts are a thing of the past.
I can’t really recall the last time I saw someone do a doughnut to celebrate a world title – and I’m going back at least 20 years here. I remember Massa did one in Brazil one year (not WDC obviously), and Lewis at a Wet British GP (again not a WDC win), but none of them did it right in the middle of pit straight and none of them dumped the car and hopped onto it to salute the crowd.
That’s the kind of image I want to see from F1. I hope some of the photographers got a decent picture of it.
Nice move from Vettel less so from FIA
Let me get this straight. Celebrate winning a championship and you get a reprimand and a 25k fine. Compete in an illegal test with your race drivers over 3 days, lie about it, and you get a reprimand only. This seems like a bit of an unequal punishment.
Great donuts, less so on FIA wrist slap. They want to bring young people into this sport, this is what may help, exuberant celebration! Won’t happen in mid season over an “ordinary” win, when titles are being contested; which driver/team would risk blowing the engine or tranny just to do donuts? And receive a grid penalty at the next race.
They should add an exception to that rule: Upon winning the championship the pit straight becomes part of parc ferme and the winning driver is strongly encouraged to drive there and do a Vettel.
That’s a good idea!
I’d go further. On any track where spectators can’t approach the podium after the race, the race winner after all other cars have completed the slow down lap should have exclusive access to the pit straight for a celebration.
Lets see the personalities of the drivers come through. it was good to see what Vettel did, i wish they all did that after winning a race. F1 is becoming too corporate and answers to questions too formal. Lets see them be like the drivers in the old days, like Mansell and Senna