Forty-one-year-old Alonso crashed on lap 22 with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. While defending his position, the Canadian pilot crossed the track to a native of Oviedo, who hit him and the front of his car flew into the air. Alonso continued after changing the front wing, Stroll retired.
The Haas team lodged a post-race protest against Alonso for racing a risky car, and the Spaniard dropped from seventh to 15th after a thirty-second time penalty. Alpine protested the verdict, but was unsuccessful. According to the commissioners, he should have either appealed to the court or requested a reconsideration.
The Alpine team thus chose the second option, with the fact that they only learned about Haas’s late protest at 20:53. The commissioners granted the request for review. The fault was also due to the fault of the race directorate, which erroneously informed Haas after the US Grand Prix that he had an hour to file a protest, even though the International Sports Regulations speak of half an hour.
Teams only have this option if they have serious reasons to do so, which was not the case in this case. Alpine thus moved up to fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup ahead of Mercedes after Alonso’s return to seventh place.
“The BWT Alpine F1 Team thanks the FIA stewards for convening the meeting and achieving a positive outcome after the US Grand Prix. The team welcomes the stewards’ decision to return car #14 to seventh place and claim six points from the race. We look forward to continuing to work alongside the FIA and we want to ensure the highest quality racing continues,” Alpine said in a statement.
Alonso already said on Thursday that he expects the penalty to be lifted. Otherwise, he warned, it could be a dangerous precedent, after which most other pilots would have to retire in the future due to possible damage to aerodynamic elements.
