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Jean-Eric Vergne received a day of community service for unsportsmanlike behavior at the first Formula E race in New York, following comments on the radio.
The penalty does not affect his victory in the 2018/19 ABB FIA FE championship or his results in New York this weekend.
The decision to grant a community service to Vergne is linked to Article 12.3.1c of the FIA Sports Code.
The governing body may grant this sanction at its discretion. That's why Max Verstappen attended the FE race in Marrakech in January after pushing Esteban Ocon after the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix Formula 1.
We do not know yet how Vergne will serve his community service, but he must do it in the next six months.
Autosport heard Vergne's team radio following his involvement in the first stack of the first race in New York, which was also attended by his teammate DS Techeetah, Andre Lotterer.
The two Techeetah cars being damaged, Vergne twice asked his team to tell Lotterer to stop on the track to provoke a safety car.
He then asked if the team had heard him and Techeetah had answered him in the affirmative.
It is difficult to know when in the race the messages were transmitted by Vergne. He made a sting as a result of a puncture on the lap of the crash while Lotterer was pursuing.
On the next lap, Lotterer crashed at the second corner with his front wing trapped under his car, although he continued and returned to the pits for repair.
Regarding the penalty, Vergne told Autosport: "Yes, if I had asked all the other drivers in F1 or Formula E, they would have asked for the same thing.
"You move slowly, you see your teammate a lap below, the car is down, the front wing is like that in the wall, it's something normal [to ask].
"Everyone would ask the same thing.It's not like he would run for a position with the car well." I asked him to put it [the car] in the wall as something in the past that happened ".
Vergne had suggested to Audi to play a role in the punishment by stating: "Audi was extremely upset that my team protested yesterday, so they found something to blame us for – as simple as that."
Audi denied having protested the problem raised by Vergne after being contacted by Autosport.
Speaking before his punishment was formalized, Mr. Vergne said he was happy to be cited as an example if he prevented other drivers from repeating the offense. .
"I'm happy with the trouble they're giving me to show that the pilots, and I, have to stop complaining on the radio to try to get things done for them," he said. declared.
"In Formula 1, everyone does it and [in] Formula E too. I would be very happy to take the blame so that we stop complaining about things for our benefit to create and pull out a safety car, bring another penalty for another driver.
"It would be good [to stop this]. "
Commissioners' decision in full:
The stewards, after listening to the radio communications of the team between the driver of the car 25 [Vergne]and his team at the 12th day [on Saturday], summoned the driver of the car 25 and the manager of the Formula E Techeetah team to investigate an alleged offense by the driver of car 25 of Annex B of the FIA International Sporting Code, the Code of good behavior.
The radio communications of the team in question suggested that the driver of the car had asked his engineer to direct his teammate, the driver of the car. [Lotterer], to stop his car on the circuit so that the race director calls a safety car intervention during the round 12.
The stewards heard the driver of the car 25 and his team leader. Relevant excerpts from the radio communications were broadcast. The driver of the car 25 acknowledged that he had called his engineer in round 12 and made the following comments:
"Tell André to stop … to take out the safety car."
Mr. Vergne stated that these messages were transmitted in the following context: The radio communications of the team in question suggested that the driver of the car 25 had asked his engineer to ask his teammate, the driver of the car 36, stop his car on the circuit to ensure that the race director calls a safety car intervention during the 12th inning.
He had concerns for his safety and that of other drivers due to debris on the track and had asked his engineer to ask the car 36 to stop for this reason only.
The driver of the car 25 stated that he recognized that his messages could be misunderstood. He acknowledged, in hindsight, that the messages were inappropriate, particularly because they had been broadcast on an open channel made available to the public via E-App and which he knew could be monitored by the race officials.
The commissioners noted that the car engineer 25 had not responded to Mr. Vergne's messages.
The sporting commissioners accept Mr Vergne's explanations, but athletes at this level are obliged to act in a fair and correct manner and to be a model for other drivers at all levels of motorsport.
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