Sebastian Vettel did not comply with team orders at 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
It has been reported that Red Bull Racing driver, Sebastian Vettel did not comply with the instructions given by the team during the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix held at Sepang International Circuit on Sunday.
During the race, the team were instructing the double world champion to retire the car RB8, mainly due to extremely dangerous temperature of the car’s brake.
Conversely, Vettel took a late retirement and had a clash with Narain Karthikeyan which would have been resulted in the installation of a new gearbox for the next race in China.
The defending champions had made the clarifications regarding the issue and said that Vettel could not pay attention to the instructions because his radio was out of order.
However, the photos which had come into view afterwards showed that the instructions given by the team were also being reflected at the pit boards during the end of lap.
Furthermore, just after the race, Vettel said, “Of course you can save the car, but I wanted to see the chequered flag. I think that’s how it should be.”
Later, Bild newspaper summarised that the back-to-back champion “ignored his bosses’ orders.”
In addition, the team principal of Red Bull, Christian Horner said that they would talk about it.
Red Bull has won last two championships and remained dominant in the preceding year with its driver, Vettel who secured 11 victories out of 19 Grands Prix.
Moreover, they had still been considered as the front-runner for this year’s championship title despite facing difficulties due to the upgrades in the car on the last day of the final test held at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona where they could only be
able to complete 23 laps and came last in the timesheets.
In addition, Vettel had been seen as the out-and-out favourite for the title. However, recently Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper had stated that this year had turned out to be ‘a nightmare’ for him as he had fallen into the line of other drivers after remaining
dominant in the last couple of seasons.
Besides, a German newspaper reported that he would be at team’s Milton Keynes headquarters before going to Shanghai GP.
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