Fernando Alonso believes Method One and the FIA’s race rules are set for an important second after his Alpine group appealed the penalty which knocked him out of the factors on the U.S. Grand Prix.
Alonso completed seventh in Austin, Texas, regardless of being despatched airborne at one stage in a 200 mph collision with Lance Stroll, his 2023 teammate who will serve a three-place grid penalty for in Mexico.
The affect of his collision left Alonso’s automobile broken and over 20 laps later his proper wing mirror fell off his automobile.
Haas later protested that Alonso was allowed to drive an unsafe automobile and the FIA agreed, issuing Alonso a 30-second time penalty — the tough equal of driving into the pit lane, serving a 10-second stop-go penalty after which driving out once more. The FIA verdict deemed Alonso’s automobile had been harmful and that the free mirror might have come off when there was a driver straight behind him.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen has been proven the black and orange flag, denoting a driver should pit to repair a harmful automobile, on three completely different events this yr.
The penalty noticed Alonso drop from seventh to fifteenth within the last classification. Alpine have protested that penalty, with a call due on Thursday forward of the Mexican Grand Prix.
“Thanks for all of the messages I obtained yesterday and in the present day,” Alonso tweeted on Monday. “It is a type of uncommon occasions in sport, that I really feel we’re all on the identical web page and share the identical opinion in direction of the foundations and rules.
“Due to this fact, Thursday is a crucial day for the game that we love a lot, as this choice will dictate if we’re entering into the precise path for the longer term. Thanks once more for all of your help”.
Alpine’s official protest stated: “The group acted pretty and deemed the automobile remained structurally secure”.
It added: “The FIA has the precise to black and orange flag a automobile throughout the race in the event that they think about it unsafe and, on this event, they assessed the automobile and determined to not motion the flag. Furthermore, after the race, the FIA technical delegate thought-about the automobile authorized”.
Alpine additionally stated Haas’ protest was lodged 24 minutes after the deadline for protests and shouldn’t have been accepted.
Haas additionally protested Pink Bull’s Sergio Pérez for a similar purpose after the race. Perez’s automobile misplaced a entrance wing endplate a number of laps after a collision with Valtteri Bottas within the opening moments of the race.
The FIA determined the Perez was not admissible, with the decision saying Pink Bull had despatched a photograph of the entrance wing to the stewards after the incident.