Vettel's gearbox was in fact damaged after the shunt in Malaysia. But the complicated FiA rules meant that he's gearbox was pulled apart, repaired and put back in the car, but did not incur a penalty.
The rules are so complicated that many teams have (surprisingly) not understood them fully, and taken gearbox penalties when they "could have" or "possibly" have avoided them. Is it a case of teams not understanding the rules fully (I'd be very surprised if so), or Ferrari understand the rules better (I'd be very surprised if so) than the other teams??
A very brief explanation of the situation with Kravitz and Whiting on SkyF1 below.
https://youtu.be/mXbrXCoEDis?t=13m20s
TK: "Did you take a fuel sample from Seb's car?"
CH: "I can't say."
Hmmm...
Long may it continue indeed!
