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F1

Stewards deliver Haas Right of Review decision

The case was adjourned from Wednesday after Haas had requested a Right of Review into the final classification of the United States Grand Prix.

Steiner Australia
Article
To news overview © XPBimages

Haas' Right of Review into the results of the United States Grand Prix has been rejected by stewards.

The decision came after a lengthy hearing, following an adjournment delivered on Wednesday [November 8], which included a number of teams.

The American-owned outfit believed there was evidence that a number of track limit infringements were not accounted for by the stewards at the Circuit of the Americas, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing one place away from championship points.

Williams, Aston Martin and Red Bull were summoned to the hearing, but there will be no change to the final classification after the stewards determined there was no new or relevant evidence to support Haas' claims.

Stewards' report into the hearing

The stewards' report into the hearing confirmed members from Haas, Williams, Aston Martin, Red Bull and the FIA were present, as well as for Ferrari and McLaren - the latter two teams requesting to attend as 'concerned parties'.

Haas cited four issues it believed met the criteria to open the review, presenting onboard footage that allegedly showed Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll leaving the track at Turn 6 during the race.

The team submitted a claim that, during the Mexico City Grand Prix Team Managers' meeting, the FIA race Director [Niels Wittich] and FIA Single Seater Sporting Director [Nikolas Tombazis] allegedly 'made several statements' indicating track limit supervision at Turn 6 was 'not ideal'.

Teams fight back

The report illustrated how Aston Martin Sporting Director Andy Stevenson pointed out that he believed there was no new or significant evidence presented by the onboard cameras.

Stevenson also highlighted that, due to Stroll's alleged infringements not being the subject of an initial investigation, the Right of Review process was not bound to the incident, rather a protest would be needed.

Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley agreed, before dismissing the relevance of the comments made in the Team Managers' meeting.

The stewards therefore decided that, whilst finding the evidence to be significant, it was not new and not relevant, thus rejecting the Right of Review.

Stewards give reasons

The stewards explained that, whilst the onboard footage was significant evidence, because this footage is readily available to all teams instantly, there were no grounds to label the footage as new evidence.

Explaining why the accuracy of Haas' request was significant, the report stated: "The petition for review asks for Document 66 (Final Classification) to be reviewed.

"Haas submitted that the purpose of this petition was to ask the Stewards to take action on alleged track limit infringements by Cars 2, 11 and 18 for which no ruling was given by the Stewards during the race.

"The Stewards reaffirm that a petition to review the Final Classification must concern the classification itself. It is not possible to exercise the Right of Review on the Final Classification to question decisions taken prior to it.

"This also applies to incidents for which no ruling was made during an event. The appropriate remedy to raise alleged infringements of the regulations by other competitors during a competition is a protest as was done, for example, by Aston Martin at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix.

"The Right of Review is intended to enable competitors to seek a review for formal decision taken by the Stewards in the light of any significant and relevant new evidence that was not available to the party seeking the review at the time of the decision."

F1 2023 United States Grand Prix RN365 News dossier

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