F1 | Ferrari, Vettel: “We are not fast in the wet. Penalty? The commissioners applied the rule to the letter."

The weekend of US Grand Prix, the eighteenth seasonal round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship, started (and will continue) uphill for Sebastian Vettel.

The German in fact received a three-place penalty, to be served on the starting grid, for not having slowed down sufficiently under the red flag regime caused by the Alfa Romeo Sauber of future teammate Charles Leclerc going off the track during FP1 .

Commenting on the first day of free practice, conditioned by rain, Vettel said: “There's not much to learn from a session like that today (yesterday, ed.) and it was like that for everyone. We didn't do many good laps and it was clear that we weren't fast enough in the wet. As for the three-place grid penalty, I think the stewards applied the rule very literally, claiming that the time it took me to slow down was 27.7 seconds; I saw the red flag, I looked around to make sure there wasn't a car in the barriers between turns 9 and 10, and I immediately slowed down to comply with the rule".

Continuing with your own discussion. the four-time world champion added: “They felt it took too long, but there's not much I can do about it. The rules are clear and we know them, but I think something like this is the first time it has happened, in weather conditions like this, and in the wet in any case you go slower".