Mexico 2016

[AndyL]

Having reviewed the stewards' decisions (http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formul...information-19) and the sporting regulations, I think Alex Kalinauckas writing on the James Allen site either understood wrongly, or at least did not accurately describe the situation.

There is no stewards' decision requiring Max to give the place back, only a decision to impose a 5 second time penalty, which is in line with the announcement that the incident would be investigated after the race.

Fact: Car 33 left the track in turn 1, gaining a lasting advantage.
Offence: Breach of Article 27.4 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Decision: 5 Second Time Penalty imposed after the race in accordance with Article 38.3 (5 seconds added to elapsed race time)
(1 penalty points awarded, 4 points total for the 12 month period)

Which is not surprising, because there is no provision in the rules for the stewards to instruct a driver to give a place back. Only this:

At the absolute discretion of the race director a driver may be given the opportunity to give back the whole of any advantage he gained by leaving the track.

So it may be that Charlie gave Red Bull the option to give the place back, in order to avoid a penalty; or advised them that they would receive a penalty after the race if they did not do so. But it's not something that can be ordered or imposed by the stewards. If Ferrari told Vettel that Verstappen had to give the place back on track, they were wrong.

I don't think there is any lack of clarity, except perhaps emerging from PR desks at Maranello and Milton Keynes.