If the rumours are true, Ferrari are currently investigating whether or not they can lodge a protest that could overturn the 2012 world championship results.
Ferrari are said to be looking at on-board footage from Sebastian Vettel’s car which appears to show the German driver passing the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne under a yellow flag during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Should Ferrari protest and be successful, 20 seconds would be added to Vettel’s time. This would demote him to eighth place and mean Fernando Alonso would end up being world champion by a single point.
At present, the FIA have refused to confirm whether they are investigating the issue or not.
Alonso has posted a crpytic message on his Twitter account which implies that Ferrari will possibly be protesting. Writing in Spanish he said, “I do not believe in miracles, I make my miracles through the right rules.”
The incident footage was not shown on the main F1 feed however it was shown on extra channels which show in-car footage of the race. Several eagle-eyed viewers recorded the footage and uploaded it to YouTube where it has garnered much interest.
The footage cleared shows Vettel passing a flashing yellow light at Turns 2 and 3, after which he overtakes Vergne before a green flag is shown just before Turn 4. During this manoeveur, Vettel’s yellow flag indicator is on in the cockpit. However this does not automatically mean that Vettel has done anything wrong – if the marshal was waving a green flag at the start of the yellow zone – and the marshal cannot be seen from the in-car footage – the pass on Vergne would be legal.
According to the international sporting code, the FIA have until 30 November to resolve the situation.
