The Haas and Alpine Formula 1 teams have been summoned to a stewards meeting in Mexico City on Thursday in the fall-out of the United States Grand Prix protest. Haas lodged a complaint with the stewards after the race at Austin in which Fernando Alonso finished seventh after a high-speed collision with Lance Stroll's Aston Martin shortly after a Safety Car restart. The team complained that Alonso was able to continue with a wing mirror flapping in the wind without receiving a black and orange flag order to pit from race control as their driver Kevin Magnussen had done so multiple times in 2022 for similar offences. A similar complaint against Sergio Perez for a broken front wing end-plate was thrown out. The stewards agreed that Alonso's car was unsafe and handed him a 10 second stop/go penalty - the most serious penalty short of disqualification, but as the race was already finished, it was converted into a 30 second time penalty - dropping Alonso to 15th. After the result, Alpine signalled their own intention to appeal Haas's original protest.
Further enquiry
In their statement on Sunday after the Austin race, the stewards noted that Haas's protest was received 24 minutes after the cut-off, but using their power under the International Sporting Code, it was deemed admissible. Alpine have protested this protest on the basis that it was received late. Both teams have been summoned to the stewards at 18:00pm local time in Mexico on October 24th to determine whether Alpine have a case in their protest against Haas's. Should it be deemed so, a further hearing will be called for the team to actually put their case before the stewards to potentially get Alonso's penalty overturned or reduced.
Most read
