Alonso’s Penalty Reversed After Twist in Alpine-Haas F1 Protests

Alpine confirmed late Thursday night that the FIA stewards decided to reverse Fernando Alonso’s penalty, handing him back his seventh place finish at the United States Grand Prix. 

He also receives his six points back, but this outcome came with an interesting twist. 

Last weekend, Haas filed a protest following the U.S. Grand Prix regarding the Spaniard’s car, and the stewards ruled Sunday evening that it was driven in an unsafe condition. Alonso and Lance Stroll collided during the race, and while the Alpine driver was able to finish, his car was damaged. His right-wing mirror eventually fell off his car several laps later.

Alpine said in a Twitter thread, “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 decision from the stewards was a 30-second post-race penalty, which dropped Alonso to 15th. In turn, Alpine filed a protest of its own about the admissibility of Haas’s protest. According to the Renault-owned team, it was filed 24 minutes past the deadline. 

The two teams were to meet with the stewards Thursday ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, and they determined Alpine’s protest was not admissible because “there is no ability or right for any party to ‘protest’ a decision of the Stewards nor against a summons to a hearing,” per formula1.com. Alpine then requested a right of review, citing new evidence. According to The Race, the team’s sporting director Alan Permane argued “the word ‘impossible’ sets a very ‘high bar’—the Oxford Dictionary defines it as being something that cannot happen or be achieved and that in this case, there was nothing preventing Haas from lodging the protest within the 30-minute deadline,” via a handwritten note.

Haas team manager Peter Crolla, though, said the team would have taken that route had they “not been told by the FIA official in race control that it had an hour” to lodge the initial protest.  

A hearing was held later Thursday evening where it was determined Haas could have submitted a handwritten protest during the 30-minute deadline. Given that this meant the requirement set by the regulations could have been met, the penalty decision “is rendered null and void.”