The FIA stewards have turned down Alpine’s attempt to have Fernando Alonso reinstated to his points-scoring finish in the United States Grand Prix, ruling their protest against the decision is not admissible.
However Alpine is not prepared to give up its fight to reclaim Alonso’s seventh place and has immediately petitioned the stewards for a review. A hearing on that was scheduled to begin at 8:45pm in Mexico City, where this weekend’s race in taking place.Alonso was penalised after Haas brought a protest against his team, claiming his car was run in an unsafe condition during Sunday’s race. The right-hand-side wing mirror fell off his A522 around 38 minutes after it was damaged in a collision with Lance Stroll.
The stewards agreed with Haas and penalised Alpine on the grounds that they were responsible for the safety of the car. They also admonished race director Niels Wittich for failing to display the black-and-orange flag to Alonso which would have forced him to pit for repairs.
Haas brought the protest as they had to comply with the same flag on three previous occasions this year. They failed to submit their protest within 30 minutes of the provisional race classification being published, which the stewards acknowledged in their original verdict, stating it was “lodged 24 minutes out of time.”
However the International Sporting Code states stewards may grant exceptions to this rule “in circumstances where the stewards consider that compliance with the thirty-minute deadline would be impossible.” In their original verdict the stewards started “compliance with the deadline was not possible in this case and that the protest was admissible.”
Alpine sought to challenge that decision in their protest today. However the stewards rejected their attempt on several grounds. These included the fact Alpine’s protest was submitted too late – one hour and eight minutes after the decision on Haas’s original protest.
The stewards also noted that decisions of the stewards and summons to hearings cannot be protested. “The appropriate course of action for Alpine, if it disagreed with the decision of the stewards, would have been to appeal to the FIA International Court of Appeal, and to do that it would have to have given notice of intention to appeal to the stewards within one hour of the decision, as prescribed in the FIA International Sporting Code and the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules,” they noted.
“Alternatively,” they added, “should a significant and new element be discovered (by Alpine), it could petition the Stewards under Article 14 of the Code, for a review. That option remains available for 14 days after the end of the Competition.” As it is still within that window, Alpine has now taken advantage of this opportunity.
Earlier on Thursday Alonso said he was “very confident” the penalty would be overturned and warned F1 would face “huge problems” if it wasn’t.
Update: Alonso’s US GP penalty cancelled as stewards accept Haas submitted protest too late
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Pedro (@)
28th October 2022, 4:17
Uhm, what FIA? You should cancel the 30s penalty immediately
SB12 (@sb12)
28th October 2022, 4:26
A very happy year for Alpine’s lawyers — a huge year-end bonus ahead !
RandomMallard
28th October 2022, 7:50
@sb12 As long as the team forget the Piastri contract fiasco! That won’t look good in the lawyers!
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th October 2022, 8:07
No bonus if they don’t win…..
S
28th October 2022, 5:22
The FIA just keep digging themselves deeper into their hole.
frood19 (@frood19)
28th October 2022, 8:19
I think alpine keep trying to dig up. Their overall management skills seem desperately lacking, which is a shame because the core enstone team has always been very good – this year’s car is excellent.
Alesici
28th October 2022, 6:40
I think this heralds a brand new type of motor racing: the races to protest and to counter-protest those protests. Both teams lost their races, but it’s OK because it was imposible for Haas to win their 30 minute protest race for… reasons. Perhaps the same reasons why the stewards ruled that Red Bull’s wobbly endplate was not dangerous but Haas’s were (even though Red Bull’s fell off).
Hats off to Alpine for subsequently winning the race to appeal, with a dominating winning margin of more than 13 days! Has there ever been such a crushing victory? Can we have a post race analysis please, dissecting their race strategy, the military-grade pen technology utilised, and the racing lines followed by such masterly penmanship?
SteveP
28th October 2022, 7:27
This.
I just love that the HAAS protest can be considered outside the time limit, because.
Whereas the Alpine protest cannot be considered outside the time limit because it’s a time limit.
I was about to suggest that the new element was that the stewards made a total cock up (during the race with no black/orange flag) another afterward (post race scrutineering) and another in allowing the HAAS protest without a good, stated, reason for doing so outside the time limit (a time limit that apparently does apply if you are Alpine, but not HAAS.
Then I realised the stewards making things up to cover up a previous cock-up was not new. Abu Dhabi.
Out of interest, when can we expect the cover-up of the RBR cost cap breach? Or has that already started?
Gizzlina
28th October 2022, 6:41
https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1585853148270596096?t=7S-W-mjI2vMxPPIeLHg_Pg&s=08
Alonso back to P7
SteveP
28th October 2022, 7:39
Woah, I’ve caught up now.
Reading between the lines, it seems like Mohammed ben Sulayem intervened and wants the mid-race cock up investigated, which should carry with it an investigation of the reasons for not flagging various other cars – like Perez, who many people noted had damage where the part eventually fell off (unlike any HAAS part)
grapmg
28th October 2022, 7:53
Good news for Alonso and Alpine.. Next step is to agree on a consistent black and orange flag to be applied. I hope that doesn’t mean we will get the flag for every small damage. Also I think this should be stewards only to handle and not teams and drivers asking for the flag
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th October 2022, 8:12
I think Haas was the one most penaultized with that flag for very little things (like perez rightfront and didn’t get a black and orange flag) and i hope that will be used for serious thing like the mirror of the Alpine that one was too heavy if it break lose..
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th October 2022, 7:59
Good news indeed, that’s what I call justice, I’m surprised they succeeded though, given the terrible appeal system the fia has. Agree they need to look at consistency now, especially with how the big teams are treated in these matters.
SadF1fan
28th October 2022, 8:30
You can clearly see the corporate culture of the FIA, even when F1 is finally making strides and becoming popular, it’s the FIA that ruins it all again with their disorganization, bad communication, convoluted rules that are open for any interpretation and arbitrary rulings.
Aslong as the FIA refuses to give away control through understandble rules and rulings, every race and season will continue to turn into a political soap opera.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
28th October 2022, 8:44
Oh good, the FIA clown show is back in town.
Elgsdyr
28th October 2022, 9:15
Erm, what.?!? You state that the protest from Alpine has been dismissed. Motorsport.com state that “Alpine wins bid to overturn Alonso’s US GP F1 penalty”. Who am I to believe?
Tommy Scragend
28th October 2022, 9:33
The initial protest by Alpine was dismissed as out of time (ironically). Then a further protest was made using new evidence. Such protests are allowed within 14 days, so the second protest by Alpine was admitted and was successful.