Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has questioned where the fine he’ll pay for his unauthorised scooter ride back to the paddock at the Australian Grand Prix will go.
Vettel’s Aston Martin broke down during the opening practice session in Melbourne with engine failure.
Smoke billowed from his stricken AMR22 which Vettel helped to extinguish before riding back to the paddock on a scooter on-track shortly after the session ended.
The stewards announced during FP2 that they were investigating Vettel and late on Friday evening, issued a €5000 fine.
Things we didn't expect to see at the #AustralianGP:
Sebastian Vettel racing on a scooter 🤣 pic.twitter.com/B4B14hhnx5
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 8, 2022
“At the end of the session, Vettel sought a way to return to his pit,” the stewards report said. “A marshal was at the location with a scooter. Vettel asked if he could drive the scooter in order to return to his pit.
“The marshal assented. Vettel got on the scooter, expecting the marshal to get on behind him. When he didn’t get on, Vettel departed alone for the pit, without the prior approval to do so.”
When asked about his fine after a qualifying session where he was only able to complete one flying lap after crashing in FP3, Vettel initially replied “what do you think?”. When journalists present suggested it was “a joke”, Vettel said a resigned “yeah…” then queried how the money from his fine would be used.
“It would be good to know what happens to that money,” he said.
“We are still not aware what happened to €50,000 or whatever that Max [Verstappen] had to pay for touching a rear wing.”
Max Verstappen was fined €50,000 for touching then-F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes rear wing in Brazil last year, and later joked the FIA will have had many “dinners and good wine” on him.
Vettel, who also picked up a fine for speeding in the pitlane in Melbourne qualifying, labelled his session “very difficult”.
He was only able to participate because his team-mate Lance Stroll collided with Nicholas Latifi and caused a red flag delay that allowed his team more time to repair Vettel’s car following a heavy crash in practice three.
“I didn’t know where the limit was. I had no running,” Vettel said.
“But I think today is really a day for the team. They did incredibly, all the girls and boys in the garage, they worked really hard to get both cars out and it was a miracle.
“At the minute where we are with pace we’re not going to jump to the front and create a miracle, we’re not strong enough for that now.
“Obviously we get a lot of hammering from outside, and we hammer a lot on the inside – as in, we’re not where we want to be and there are a lot of questions.
“But we know our car has more potential but we can’t get to it. We’re not the only ones to suffer that problem but it doesn’t help.
“At the end of the day when qualifying comes round, the laptime or the stopwatch makes the difference and we found ourselves at the back. So we will see what we can do tomorrow but we know the next races are going to be difficult.”
Stroll, who is responsible for Aston’s sole Q2 appearance this year, was unable to set a time before his collision with Latifi so Vettel and Stroll qualified down in 18th and 20th. Alex Albon’s grid penalty for colliding with Stroll in Saudi should elevate both one place.
