Isn't it against the rules to retire a car without a failure?

[RemarkLima]

After Vettel retired for no reason other than "can't be ar$ed to run around a lap down", I'm sure it's against a rule?

Otherwise surely, with reliability being so key, anyone without a shot at the top 10 should just pit with 10 laps to go? And surely bad for the sponsorship, bad for the sport, I'd think Bernie wouldn't be too happy either?

Or is it just against the spirit of the rules / racing?

[Vaud]

Well given he clearly had a power issue in early laps, it would be fair for RB to say the car had some issues?

[S0 What]

I don't think it's illeagal as such but you couldn't do it to avoid a penalty for geearbox usage in the recent years ??
really not 100% on that ?

[mistakenplane]

They had problems and have used a lot of units already, so Im sure its easily justifiable to say "we didnt want to mash the engine etc up" and save it.

[Adrian W]

what do you classify as a failure, the car bursting into flames or the drivers drinks bottle not working?

[Jasandjules]

RemarkLima said:

After Vettel retired for no reason other than "can't be ar$ed to run around a lap down", I'm sure it's against a rule?

Well, I think the "don't want to blow up another engine and take a penalty" is a wise decision. Not just that, but if some teams retired the cars before serious failures we might have a few less accidents..

[RemarkLima]

Well, in the post race interview Vettel said they'd retired the car to save some mileage, no other reason, no failure per se (they just shouldn't press the overtake button).

I've no complaints, and completely understand the reasons for retiring the car, but thought quite a few years ago a team got a slap on the wrists for retiring the car early... As RB haven't, I assume there's nothing in the rules to stop your just retiring a car when you feel like it.

As said, you probably can't get the free gearbox change that you used to be able to do... Not sure if that's even in the rules this year?

[GroundEffect]

Jasandjules said:

RemarkLima said:

After Vettel retired for no reason other than "can't be ar$ed to run around a lap down", I'm sure it's against a rule?

Well, I think the "don't want to blow up another engine and take a penalty" is a wise decision. Not just that, but if some teams retired the cars before serious failures we might have a few less accidents..

Yes we understand the reason...but the rules are written to stop that, otherwise anyone that didn't stand a huge chance of points could just give up to save mileage...

[TheRealFingers99]

Leave the poor boy alone -- he's having a hard time!

[Fonz]

If you banned the drivers from retiring a car in the garage to save miles on the major components then you would just have some of them spinning the car off into the gravel or finding some other way around the rules to get what they want.