The FIA has rejected McLaren’s plea after their right of review against their decision to penalize Lando Norris in F1 US GP for his move against Max Verstappen.
After stating that they are unlikely to appeal the decision, McLaren surprised with a right of review against the FIA decision in F1 US GP, where they penalised Norris for his move against Red Bull’s Verstappen in the closing stages of the grand prix.
It dropped the Brit down by one place to fourth. Post-race, Andrea Stella noted that they won’t appeal. But few days down, they have now appealed after potentially finding ‘new evidence’, which they had to present to the FIA in the hearing.
That is the first step they have to clear to have a chance to overturn the decision. Even though chances are less for an overturn, McLaren had to try its luck considering the close title fight between Norris and Verstappen for the drivers’ title.
Between the two races, the Dutchman going off-track was debated along with the note that the Brit was potentially ahead of the Red Bull driver in the apex, thereby making him the driver to defend his position rather than attack for the position.
The hearing took place between FP1 and FP2 sessions in Mexico GP and the FIA eventually dismissed McLaren’s ‘new evidence’. The result from F1 US GP stands with that, where Verstappen remains third ahead of Norris. The review, though, opened up discussions around driving guideline and stewarding as a whole.
The ‘new evidence’ that McLaren thought to be fulfilling Article 14’s ‘high bar’ centered around the wording of the stewards’ document post the US GP in their decision, which stated that Norris was not at the level of Verstappen at the apex.
McLaren stated that they had evidence to show that Norris had already overtaken Verstappen at the apex. The FIA opted to look at ‘relevance’ of the ‘new evidence’ which they deemed unsustainable considering they focused interpretation on their end.
UPDATE: McLaren responded to the rejection while not agreeing with the interpretation that the FIA set in the hearing. “We acknowledge the Stewards’ decision to reject our petition requesting a Right of Review,” it said.
“We disagree with the interpretation that an FIA document, which makes a competitor aware of an objective, measurable and provable error in the decision made by the stewards, cannot be an admissible “element” which meets all four criteria set by the ISC, as specified in Article 14.3.
“We would like to thank the FIA and the stewards for having considered this case in a timely manner. We will continue to work closely with the FIA to further understand how teams can constructively challenge decisions that lead to an incorrect classification of the race.”
Here’s Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and F1 rivals on the matter
Here’s McLaren filing right of review
Here’s Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez on US GP
Here’s Red Bull, McLaren on their US GP fight
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