Officials have deemed Alpine’s protest of Haas’ own protest regarding Fernando Alonso’s damaged car at the United States Grand Prix was not admissible.
It has, however, exercised its Right of Review, lodging the petition with Stewards on Thursday evening local time with a preliminary hearing “to determine if a significant and relevant new element has been discovered which was not available” when the protest was deemed inadmissible.
The outcome of that process has not been announced.
Haas protested Alonso and Sergio Perez’s Red Bull following last weekend’s race out of principle.
“We don’t want to disqualify half the field, that was not the intention,” Haas boss Guenther Steiner said of his team’s initial protest following the Circuit of The Americas event.
“Just making the point that there needs to be consistency, what is done out there, because it’s not fair the small teams, that they are treated differently than the big teams.
“It was 30 laps with a flapping mirror is just 30 laps too many,” he added of Alonso’s damage in Austin.
“And then it’s missing, and obviously came off, which is the worst scenario.”
On three occasions in 2022, Kevin Magnussen has been forced into the pits for repairs, compromising his races.
Haas argued that both Alonso and Perez should have been shown the black and orange ‘meatball’ flag after their respective cars sustained damage.
In the case of Perez, the protest was dismissed while for Alonso the Stewards deemed not only was it admissible but subsequently dolled out a 10-second stop-go penalty, which translated into 30 seconds added on to the Spaniard’s race time.
That saw him fall from seventh to 15th in the final classification.
Soon after, Alpine announced its intention to lodge a protest, arguing Haas lodged its submission too late and it should therefore not have been entertained.
Speaking on Thursday, Alonso warned allowing submissions after the time limit risked opening Pandora’s Box when it comes to potential protests going forward.
The matter was heard over video conference in Mexico City today, with Stewards deeming the Anglo-French operation’s complaint was not admissible.
It was noted that “According to the FIA International Sporting Code, there is no ability or right for any party to ‘protest’ a decision of the Stewards nor against a summons to a hearing.”
Stewards also noted Alpine’s protest was lodged an hour and eight minutes after the decision from the original protest was published, which is, ironically, outside of the allowed time limit.
The Stewards’ summary also noted the appropriate course of action should have been to pursue the matter with the International Court of Appeal.
“The appropriate course of action for Alpine, if it disagreed with the Decision of the Stewards, would have been to appeal to the FIA International Court of Appeal, and to do that it would have to have given notice of intention to appeal to the Stewards within one hour of the Decision, as prescribed in the FIA International Sporting Code and the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules,” it noted.
“Alternatively, should a significant and new element be discovered (by Alpine), it could petition the Stewards under Article 14 of the Code, for a review. That option remains available for 14 days after the end of the Competition.”
The results of the United States Grand Prix, therefore, remain unchanged with Alonso officially classified 15th following the application of his post-race penalty.
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