25/10/2022
NEWS STORY
Alpine is to protest the admissibility of the Haas protest that led to Fernando Alonso being demoted from 7th to 15th.
Shortly after the race, Haas protested the cars of Sergio Perez and Alonso for continuing to race whilst in an unsafe condition - namely the loose endplate on the Mexican's car and the missing mirror on the Spaniard's.
Haas was concerned that while both cars were allowed to continue, three times this season its drivers have been shown the black-and-orange flag having incurred damage that, as far as the stewards were concerned, necessitated immediate repair.
While the protest of the Red Bull was thrown out, that of the Alpine was upheld and the driver handed a 10s penalty, which post-race amounted to 30s, thereby dropping him from 7th out of the points to 15th.
The French team has now protested the decision.
"BWT Alpine F1 Team is disappointed to receive a post-race time penalty for Car #14 from today’s United States Grand Prix, which unfortunately means Fernando moves to outside the points-paying positions," it said in a statement.
"The team acted fairly and deemed the car remained structurally safe as a result of Fernando's incident with Lance Stroll on lap 22 of the race with the right-side rear view wing mirror detaching from the chassis as a result of accident damage caused by Stroll.
"The FIA has the right to black and orange flag a car during the race if they consider it unsafe and, on this occasion, they assessed the car and decided not to action the flag. Moreover, after the race, the FIA technical delegate considered the car legal.
The team also believes due to the protest being lodged 24 minutes past the specified deadline, it should not have been accepted and therefore the penalty should be considered as invalid.
"As a result of this point, the team has protested the admissibility of the original Haas F1 Team protest."