‘Completely wrong Montreal penalty damaged Sebastian Vettel’s faith in Formula 1’ – Bernie Ecclestone. Bernie Ecclestone has leapt to the defence of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

British business magnate and the former chief executive of the Formula One Group, Bernie Ecclestone, has leapt to the defence of Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel, saying the four-time Formula One world champion has every right to be unhappy with his penalty in Montreal.

Sebastian Vettel was given a controversial penalty in Canada which gave Lewis Hamilton the win and demoted Sebastian to second place. More mistakes have followed since the Canadian Grand Prix and he is still without a victory since the Belgian Grand Prix in 2018, as his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc has won twice following back-to-back wins in Belgium and Monza.

Sebastian Vettel’s future with not just the Maranello team, but in Formula 1 overall, was called into question after another self-inflicted error at Monza and his friend, Bernie Ecclestone, believes Montreal has had a lasting effect.

“He seems to have lost something,” Bernie Ecclestone said in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport. “The worst thing that happened to him was the punishment in Montreal. The punishment there was completely wrong and unnecessary. It somehow damaged Sebastian’s faith in the sport. His action was not dangerous. Everyone else would have reacted like him. Lewis was clever, making it look dangerous.” – the former Formula 1 chief explained, as reported by the German media.

At the same time Bernie Ecclestone said that Formula 1 will become devalued by adding more races to the schedule. Under his lead, Formula 1 was taken across the world and had its calendar swollen to 21 races by 2016, a figure which has been matched under Liberty Media’s watch. With the addition of races in Vietnam and the Netherlands next year, the schedule will hit a new record at 22 grands prix, with Chase Carey having previously spoken of a desire to have as much as 25 races in a season.

Despite his own role in the calendar’s expansion, Ecclestone dismissed the financial merits behind adding more and more races. He, just like Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, feels 16 is more than enough.: “The more races there are, the more the product is devalued. We have already experienced this supersaturation in tennis. There are 100 tournaments, but not even 10 of them are important. If there are only 16 races, the organizers have to pay more accordingly. And they will do it, because their event is all the more valuable due to the shortage of the Grands Prix.”