United States Grand Prix – Fernando Alonso was handed a post-race stop and go penalty after Haas protested that he was driving an unsafe car.
Following the Grand Prix Haas lodged two protests with the stewards about Alonso and Sergio Perez driving in unsafe cars and not being shown black and orange flags.
On multiple occasions this season Haas have been shown the flags, which mean the car is unsafe to drive and must head to the pits to be repaired, and have lost time and positions as a result. Therefore they understandably felt aggrieved that other cars had not been forced to follow the same rules as they had despite the team reporting the issues to Race Control on multiple occasions.
Their protest of Perez was about the Mexican’s front wing which had an endplate flapping around for a few laps at the start of the race before falling off, and against Alonso was that the Alpine driver’s right hand mirror was flapping about before falling off.
The Perez protest was dismissed given the FIA had been satisfied with photos from Red Bull during the race which showed the front wing was not in an unsafe condition following the endplate falling off.
The other protest however was upheld despite Alpine arguing that the damage was caused by the collision with Stroll and not a fault of the team or driver. The French team also brought up the fact that both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc weren’t penalised for driving without mirrors at Suzuka in 2019.
Alonso and Stroll come together 💥😮#USGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/H8Wbs0GaXL
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 23, 2022
The FIA however decided that the loose mirror was a danger and could have injured another driver if it hit them when it fell off, and that not having two mirrors on the car meant that it was in an unsafe condition to drive. The 2019 incidents were not considered to be “precedents” in this situation.
Alonso was given a 10 second stop and go penalty, converted to 30 seconds added to his race time which dropped him from a great recovery drive to P7, out of the points to P15, but there were no penalty points added to his licence as it was considered a team matter.
As well as giving Alonso a penalty, the stewards also stated that they were “deeply concerned that Car 14 was not given the black and orange flag, or at least a radio call to rectify the situation, despite the two calls to Race Control by the Haas Team”.
Alpine released a statement after the decision confirming that they will they will lodge an appeal “BWT Alpine F1 Team is disappointed to receive a post-race time penalty for Car #14 from today’s United States Grand Prix, which unfortunately means Fernando moves to outside the points-paying positions.
“The team acted fairly and deemed the car remained structurally safe as a result of Fernando’s incident with Lance Stroll on lap 22 of the race with the right-side rear view wing mirror detaching from the chassis as a result of accident damage caused by Stroll.
“The FIA has the right to black and orange flag a car during the race if they consider it unsafe and, on this occasion, they assessed the car and decided not to action the flag. Moreover, after the race, the FIA technical delegate considered the car legal.
“The team also believes due to the protest being lodged 24 minutes past the specified deadline, it should not have been accepted and therefore the penalty should be considered as invalid.
“As a result of this point, the team has protested the admissibility of the original Haas F1 Team protest.”
The notes on the hearing and the decision read:
Hearing
Present at the Hearing were;
On behalf of Haas; Gunther Steiner and Ayao Komatsu.
On behalf of BWT Alpine; Alan Permane.
On behalf of the FIA; Nikolas Tombazis, Jo Bauer and Niels Wittich.
The Haas representatives asserted that the car was unsafe and noted that their car(s) had been given the black and orange flag on three occasions this year for situations involving their car being in an unsafe condition.
Mr Steiner explained that Mr Peter Crolla had contacted Race Control to report the issue with Car 14 on 2 occasions during the race and was told that the matter was being looked into.
Mr Permane submitted that the mirror came off through no fault of their driver or team and was due to the collision caused by the driver of Car 18. He also submitted that at only one time during the race after the mirror fell off, was there a car behind Car 14 and that the race engineer was warning the driver of the gap to that car. Further, that there was a precedence in Suzuka in 2019 where the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were allowed to continue with mirror problems.
The evidence shows that Car 14 was driven firstly with the mirror flapping for a significant number of laps, then with no mirror after it fell off.
Mr Bauer submitted that a flapping mirror was dangerous and it could come loose and hit another driver causing injury. Therefore this was unsafe.
Mr Bauer further stated that a car needs to have two mirrors and that in his opinion, which the Stewards accept as expert opinion, the car was unsafe to be driven with a mirror missing.
Mr Tombazis agreed that the car was not safe in that condition.
Conclusions of the Stewards
The Stewards are deeply concerned that Car 14 was not given the black and orange flag, or at least a radio call to rectify the situation, despite the two calls to Race Control by the Haas Team
Notwithstanding the above, Article 3.2 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations is clear – a car must be in a safe condition throughout a race, and in this case, Car 14 was not. This is a responsibility of the Alpine Team.
The Stewards do not regard the Suzuka incidents from 2019 as “precedents”.
Having considered the evidence provided, the Stewards determine that the Protest is upheld and the Protest Fee is returned.
The Stewards determine to impose a 10 second Stop and Go penalty (30 second time penalty applied after the race) to Car 14.
No penalty points are issued as this is a team matter.
