After Fernando Alonso’s punitive transfer at the US Grand Prix, his Formula 1 racing team Alpine lodged a protest. The two-time world champion received a 30-second penalty after a complaint from Mick Schumacher’s Haas team after the end of the race in Austin.
Alonso dropped out of the points from seventh place and was only classified 15th. After the appeal, Mick Schumacher moved up one place to 14th, his Danish team-mate Kevin Magnussen was eighth in the points.
After an accident with Alonso, Alpine now objected to the admissibility of the Haas protest. “The team acted fairly and felt the car remained structurally safe following Fernando’s incident with Lance Stroll on lap 22 of the race where the right wing mirror became detached from the chassis as a result of the crash damage caused by Stroll,” said Alonso’s racing team monday on The world motorsport association Fia did not classify the Spaniard’s car as unsafe during the race.
“The team also believes that the protest was submitted 24 minutes after the set deadline and therefore the penalty should not have been accepted,” the French team continued.
Admissibility Hearing
A hearing will first decide whether the protest is admissible, as the race commissioners announced on Monday evening. A representative from Alpine and one from Haas will be summoned to a video conference on Thursday (01:00 a.m. German time) in the run-up to the next race in Mexico City. If the protest is then upheld, a separate hearing will be called.
Haas had accused both Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who was later acquitted, and Alonso of driving cars that were unsafe after damage. In a process lasting more than two hours, the stewards also counted the race control in Austin, since no warning flag had been issued during the race despite repeated Haas instructions.
Alonso had therefore driven for too long with a broken right exterior mirror. This was broken in the crash with Stroll in the Aston Martin when the Spaniard drove up at high speed. During the subsequent pit stop, only the front wing had been replaced. The exterior mirror later broke off.
Perez’s car had already been damaged in the early stages, Red Bull themselves had pointed this out and made it clear that no further parts could break off.