Yes, but the entire situation and the FIA’s rulings speak to their inability to fairly control and govern races. Sticklers for form over substance, they initially ruled against Alpine yesterday as under a strict interpretation of the rules, a team cannot protest a ruling of the race stewards. However, what led to Alonso’s penalty was a protest by Haas of the stewards initial in-race decision not to flag Alonso for an unsafe car. Furthermore, Haas protest was brought too late under the same rules and should never have been allowed to be filed., let alone acted upon. These inconsistencies were not addressed in the ruling.
What is more, there was no analysis of the inconsistencies by the FIA between the stewards on track rulings, the post race determination that the car was safe, the lack of penalties post race to other drivers/cars with broken front wings ( including one where the endplate flew off on track ). Simply put, race results must now be considered unofficial, even after post race car inspections, until the race director and FIA bureaucrats deal with any protests over the steward’s on track rulings that are filed within 30 minutes of the end of the race! What is more, the race director’s in-race rulings concerning the deployment of flags is essentially meaningless as he can, as here, overrule himself ex post facto!
If the race director believes, as here, that his own and the stewards in-race decision was wrong, they should receive a reprimand or penalty rather than the team who complied with it. Rather than conducting a hearing concerning Alonso and Alpine’s conduct, one should now be directed at their own actions. Fat chance of that!
