Should Vettel be banned?

[Firstgear]

Of course Jerez 97 applies! The reasons, circumstances and intent around what happened are totally irrelevant! He used his car to hit a competitors. Every race in the season is worth the same number of points regardless of whether it is the season finale or the first race. If a driver does what schumacher did or what vettel did the punishment should be the same. Just because it's the season finale isn't written in the rules and never will be! The action and intent is the same.

If I punch a competitor in the World Cup final versus the first game in the group stages should I be treated any different? Absolutely not! I get sent off and probably receive further sanctions after.

Jerez doesn't apply because the penalty meant nothing towards the championship. They took away points from a championship he had already lost. Before the penalty, his chances of winning were 0.0% That didn't reduce after the penalty. The purpose of the penalty was to humiliate. If they really wanted to hand him a harsh penalty they would have banned him for X races in the following season.

I say ban him from the next race or take away his points from Baku. And coincidentally, this would be the perfect punishment for the championship race (FIA $$$) as well as it makes things closer in a season that finally has a close rivalry between top teams. Banning Vettel for more than a race would kill the season, so even if it were the right thing to do, it wouldn't happen because there's too much money at stake.