Nothing flows in the group of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) that regulates or, at least, tries to regulate the Formula 1 World Championship. After a Sunday to forget in Austin, in which the stewards decided to steal the spotlight from Fernando Alonso After the Asturian had won it on the track with an almost epic comeback given the circumstances in which he carried it out, this Thursday was another one of those days that highlights that something must change in this legislative body.
Hours after ratifying the verdict that annulled the seventh place achieved by Alonso in Austin, the FIA applied the handbrake to finally agree with Alpine, and restore the position in which the Oviedo man crossed the finish line, with the consequent retribution of points (six).
That Sunday, at the Circuit of the Americas, the two-time world champion was sanctioned with an additional 30-second penalty that relocated him to 15th in the final classification, after Haas filed a claim in which he argued that the Spanish car did not met the necessary "safety" conditions to compete.
The thesis of the American team was based on the collision between Alonso and Lance Stroll, on lap 22 of the test, and which caused Alonso's car to be projected into the air, before landing violently.
Despite being able to continue, the car's right rear-view mirror was left hanging, until it ended up coming off a few laps later.
Alpine appealed immediately, understanding that Haas had filed the claim after the deadline, by a margin of 24 minutes – the regulations establish a window of half an hour from the end of the race – and the FIA decided to summon all parties for Thursday. next (yesterday), in the 'paddock' of the Hermanos Rodríguez circuit, in Mexico.
The sight was attended by Alpine, Otmar Szafnauer (director), Pat Fry (technical director) and Alan Permane (sports director).
On the Haas side were Gunther Steiner (director), Peter Crolla (team manager) and Ayao Komatsu (responsible for track activities).
The FIA referees were Niels Wittich and Nikolas Tombazis.
At first, the FIA rejected the appeal of the structure of the Renault group, considering that the regulations did not give it an option.
Consequently,
In this new scenario, the French formation stated that, after the mishap with Stroll and until he crossed the finish line, Alonso was not informed at any time by the race management of the need to check the status of his car, an order that stewards give by displaying a black flag with an orange dot.
In addition to this, the Alpine delegation also emphasized that it was not until hours after the United States Grand Prix ended that it learned that Haas had filed its claim 24 minutes after the regulatory deadline.
Those responsible for the Alonso team focused on trying to show that Haas could have reacted perfectly within the established period of 30 minutes, a strategy that ended up proving them right.
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