Fernando Alonso’s P7 in the US GP gets reinstated after Alpine wins the appeal against Haas’s protest
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Fernando Alonso
It was a roller coaster of a week for Fernando Alonso and Alpine right from the US Grand Prix. After the 2022 US GP, the Alpine driver made headlines after his bizarre crash with Lance Stroll that flung half his car into the air. This was a scary incident and it was a relief watching Stroll and Fernando come out with no major injuries. However what happened after this is what was the base of the protest that Haas lodged against Alpine.
After the US GP, Haas F1 team lodged a protest on Alonso’s car on the grounds stating that the car was unsafe due to a ‘loose and ultimately missing’ rear view mirror which in turn posed a great threat to his competitors. Having started the race in P14, the Alpine driver charged through the pack and was sent flying when he hit stroll and had some damage to the car. This didn’t affect him as he continued with the race and gave it his all to finish in P7.
However all celebrations came to a stop as Haas’s protest led to a 30 second penalty for Fernando Alonso that pushed him all the way to P15. Alpine on the other hand immediately decided to appeal the protest. During Thursday in Mexico, the French team argued that it would create a huge problem for F1 if they made damaged cars retire as that would lead to almost 70% of the cars retiring. This brought out some discussions regarding the topic.
Alpine F1 team and Fernando Alonso connected the dots to overturn Haas’s protest
Alpine F1 team went on to argue that it was impossible for Haas F1 team to meet the 30 minute deadline set by the FIA despite the organisation telling the American team that they had an hour along with the fact that the stewards didn’t have the authority to extend the deadline. The French team claimed that the Fernando Alonso wasn’t informed by race control that his car was damaged.
Submitting the protest 24 minutes after the deadline also was a topic that Alpine used in their counter protest against Haas at their home race. A final hearing took place in Mexico on Thursday night where it was brought forward that Haas could have lodged a hand written protest within a 30 minute deadline but failed to do so which made their whole protest null and void.
This in return meant that Fernando Alonso would be reinstated back to P7 which was his original result. This puts further light on the issue that has been developing between the FIA and the on ground race control after having plenty of controversial moments in this season and the last. However it has been made clear that after this incident, the FIA President has launched a review into the use of the black and orange flag during the races.
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