Alpine has now hit back on Haas and the FIA with their own protest against the ‘admissibility’ of the original protest post F1 US GP.
It was already a hectic F1 US GP at the Circuit of the Americas but post it was the same when Haas protested against Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso’s cars for the in-race damage they suffered and the lack of black and orange flag shown.
It relates to the flag shown to Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at couple of events after his endplate damage earlier in the season. The American F1 team felt the same stance is not taken against others especially in the US GP with damage to the two mentioned.
Perez had his endplate broken due to collision with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, while Alonso lost his mirror long after his crash against Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. The FIA convened an investigation where it cleared Red Bull but penalised Alpine.
In the former’s case, they reckoned the car was safe to run after the flapping endplate broke off, while in the latter’s case with the mirror shown to be flapping for many laps before it came off, the FIA reckoned it deserved a black and orange flag.
With the lack of it during the grand prix, the FIA handed a 10s stop and go penalty which converted into a 30s penalty as Alonso dropped from seventh to 15th and promoted the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Magnussen, Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon in the Top 10.
While Alpine can’t necessarily go against the penalty, the team has filed a protest against the ‘admissibility’ of the Haas’ original protest which they think was done 24 minutes after the deadline had passed for any kind of protest to be filed.
“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,” read a statement from Alpine. “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.”
UPDATE: Following the filing of protest from Alpine, the FIA will convene a Zoom meeting involving the stewards, and the two teams’ representative on October 24 at 18:00 Mexico time to determine if the protest is admissible or not.
“To determine the admissibility, or otherwise, of the Protest lodged at 22:01 hrs Sunday October 23 2022 by BWT Alpine F1 Team against the Decision of the Stewards of the 2022 United States Grand Prix to find the Protest lodged by Haas F1 Team as admissible (Document 57).”
Notes:
1. A video link will be sent to all relevant parties
2. Should the Protest lodged by BWT Alpine be deemed admissible, a separate Hearing of the Protest itself will be convened and all parties will be advised on the time and date.
Here’s all the details regarding the protest and penalty
Here’s how F1 US GP panned out
