Romain Grosjean has been stripped of his sixth place finish in the Italian Grand Prix after Renault’s protest against his car was upheld.
Renault protested Grosjean’s Haas and an investigation by the stewards found that the car’s floor was not in compliance with technical regulations.
The stewards have now confirmed that Grosjean’s Haas has been formally excluded from final classification, promoting all drivers behind him up by one position and giving Sergey Sirotkin his first ever points finish in his Formula One career.The stewards explained that the investigation was prompted by a protest from Renault, who provided photographic evidence to suggest that the Haas did not adhere to the rule requiring the front reference plane of the car’s floor be a radius of 50mm to each front corner.
After a clarification was sought by the teams in July, a technical directive was issued with teams given until the Italian Grand Prix to adhere to the new directive. Haas provided the stewards with an email thread in which they claim they informed the technical director they would introduce a new update by the Singapore Grand Prix, partly due to the summer shutdown.
Haas claim that as they did not receive a direct response that they would not be permitted to adhere to the technical directive by the Singapore Grand Prix, it was “their understanding…that their solution and timing were accepted”.
Following Renault’s protest, the stewards did not accept Haas’s circumstances and ruled that “it was therefore the obligation of the competitor to be in compliance, which they did not do”.
The stewards subsequently ruled that Grosjean’s car would be excluded from the final classification.
The decision ensures that Renault remain in fourth position in the constructor’s championship, eight points ahead of Haas instead of equal on points.
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Tom
2nd September 2018, 20:53
How did Renault know there was something wrong with their floor ?
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd September 2018, 21:59
I’m pretty sure the article was updated since you posted. It now makes clear that there was an issue teams asked for clarification on and the FIA ruled that by Monza everyone had to be compliant to the stricter letter of the law Tom.
Since Haas informed the FIA that they only planned to introduce the new floor to match that by Singapore, I guess it was a card Renault (and probably others too) kept in hand to have in case the Haas had a good result
Sham (@sham)
2nd September 2018, 20:54
After the race, when the cars all stop close to one another – I imagine they used their eyes.
Tom
2nd September 2018, 20:57
Bit is it really that obvious ? If so how did haas miss it ? Maybe they get close enough to measure these things but when you’re talking about mm size that’s hard to judge by eye.
Sham (@sham)
2nd September 2018, 21:03
These are people used to detailing in the microns. If something looks off, it’s worth an ask.
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd September 2018, 21:20
Or maybe they noted it before @sham, @Tom and kept it in reserve to either try it themselves, or use it like they did now that the car got ahead of them in the points.
Tom
2nd September 2018, 21:51
That’s true @bosyber . I guess if they noticed after qualifying or practice they’d just wait until after the race to bring it up for maximum gain. Still seems surprising that a rival team noticed it.
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd September 2018, 22:38
With the updated article as it is now (ie. the full FIA stewards report) @Tom, I guess it is clear why: everyone had to update/check their floor by Monza, and perhaps teams had also had discussions/rumours about Haas not being able to do that by that date, due to it having to go (I suppose) from their design department through Dallara …
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
2nd September 2018, 20:57
Feel bad for Romain, but this is a moment my inner statistic-lover has been looking forward to all year; now every driver to have entered a race this year has scored at least one point! I’m pretty sure every single entrant having points on the board at any given time is a historical first. Of course, Haas may appeal, and there may be a new driver on the grid next time out, so I’m enjoying it while it lasts!
Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
2nd September 2018, 20:58
Feel bad for him. Outpaced KMag the whole weekend and was best of the rest. Rules are rules though.
erikje
2nd September 2018, 21:01
There’s a lot at stake for the multi million Renault aspirations. Being passed by a small team like Haas would be disgraceful.
So every option to strip Haas points is allowed.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
2nd September 2018, 21:17
From @F1StatMan:
Tim (@TimAitch) (@timaitch)
3rd September 2018, 0:08
Sounds like a ten minute job with an angle grinder.
Drop Sochi
3rd September 2018, 2:21
Maybe they tried but didnt get it within 1mm.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd September 2018, 21:03
Happy for Sirotkin. He deserved it!
ColdFly (@)
2nd September 2018, 21:45
Happy for him.
Not sure if he ‘deserved it’ though.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd September 2018, 21:49
@coldfly he’s been doing very well in that dog of a car, a quiet job. He was in the top 10 for most of the race too. So I think he deserved it.
Retired (@jeff1s)
2nd September 2018, 21:06
Every driver has scored one point this season
Ajaxn
2nd September 2018, 21:06
Was the other Haas checked? And if so would this have been caused as the car rode up on to the higher Monza curbs.
f199player (@f199player)
2nd September 2018, 21:20
Only Grosjean was protested and Renault had picture of the car from the grid, Haas was told before the event that they were open to protest as a supplier couldn’t make the floor compliant before this weekend
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
2nd September 2018, 22:56
From the sounds of it one has to assume that if someone had protested Magnessen’s car then it too would have been disqualified.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
2nd September 2018, 21:07
Wow, Racing Point gonna pass Toro Rosso’ racing points…
ColdFly (@)
2nd September 2018, 21:50
In their ‘desperate’ attempt to keep Haas behind, they might actually have opened the door for RPFI to overtake them.
@ruliemaulana
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2018, 10:23
@coldfly I doubt it. A bit too big of a gap for RPFI to claw back entirely within only seven races.
Pedro Andrade
2nd September 2018, 21:59
Feel bad for Grosjean, he has been driving very well in the past few races.
medman (@medman)
3rd September 2018, 0:13
Haas…..”but, but, but, you didn’t reply to our request, so, so, we thought we was good”. Really Haas? Really?
lunaslide (@lunaslide)
3rd September 2018, 20:24
Silence does NOT mean consent. Haven’t they been paying attention to #metoo? ;)
Esploratore (@esploratore)
3rd September 2018, 2:19
Disgraceful of renault, 200 mil budget, a manufacturer team and they need force india to start over from 0 points and to protest against haas to stop them from catching up in a haas favoured track to get their 4th place.
I have my serious doubts this team that has to try stuff like this to barely get 4th will bring the challenge to the top teams.
Aaditya (@neutronstar)
3rd September 2018, 4:13
@esploratore It’s not like they’ve used unfair means. Rather, it was Haas whose car turned out to be illegal and Renault deserves credit for keeping their eyes open.
Surely, if you have knowledge that your main competitor is not following the rules, you will protest it, no matter who you are. Not sure how this makes Renault “disgraceful”.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd September 2018, 10:25
Well, this now means that no driver will finish this season with zero points. Now on point, though: The right decision by the Stewards since the technical regulations had been broken.
Anon
3rd September 2018, 18:08
Aaarrhg com-on.. Renault found themselves the smallest shoes in the shop… Fairplay would have been to protest before the race or send a warning signal on friday..
Alonso and Renault is really under pressure these days and is pulling everything up from that hat.. Glad Fi lost their points else they have been shooting too..
Dave
3rd September 2018, 14:35
First technical infringement DSQ since 2015.