Five victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two Italian Touring titles, a legendary career. Emanuele Pirro he was one of the greatest and most successful Italian pilots ever and yet, especially for younger enthusiasts, he is none other than the steward who helped to remove a Sebastian Vettel victory in the 2019 Canadian GP. On that occasion, the German – still in Ferrari at the time – led the race from start to finish, but was penalized by five seconds for hitting Lewis Hamilton, returning after a slight hike off the track. That penalty cost him his success and unleashed a rain of controversy, which became very ferocious and serious on social networks, with offenses directed at the person of Pyrrhus. Vettel himself was very critical of the decision, blatantly contested by ‘moving’ the signs indicating the first and second position in the closed park.
Interviewed on the official F1 podcast Beyond The Grid, Pirro went back to talking about that controversial affair, also explaining how much he was hurt over time by the accusations that were made against him. “It was very unpleasant – said the former Roman driver – in a way that changed my life and also my perception of things. My relationship with social media is different now. Social media gives an extra tool for many people to express their frustration. Unfortunately, however, they do this without the knowledge necessary to analyze certain things. More than the insults, however, it was unpleasant because it was a clear situation. Except people didn’t understand it and eventually the whole world of motorsport and F1 lost something. Most people have had a negative perception [dell’episodio]. We did justice to a single race episode and all of this damaged the whole of F1 because it was perceived in the wrong way “.
“All of this hurt me because I love this sport so much – added Pirro – and I said to myself ‘but because they don’t understand that whoever is right to win wins, not who you want to win’. I think everyone wanted Sebastian to win. It was in a difficult moment, it would have been an exceptional episode. It would have been a wonderful story. But if you score and are offside, then it must be offside. Someone has to make this decision to make the sport fair”Underlined the Italian, drawing on a football metaphor. On the behavior of Vettel that day, however, Pirro did not give negative judgments: “We thought about sitting at a table and talking about it, but we never did. He was nice to me the next race, we crossed into the paddock and patted me on the shoulder. I think Sebastian is a really good guy, but in the tension of the moment he felt ripped off. Which is understandable. A similar thing happened to me when I was racing in the GT, in the 90s. I came to think of retiring, because I felt I was the victim of a great injustice. Now if I see that episode again I think I’m an idiot, because it was my fault. Vettel is a good guy, he’s a smart person. Maybe once we’ll have this chat with Seb “.