AUSTIN, Texas – Fernando Alonso has been relegated from seventh to 15th at the US Grand Prix following opposition from rival team Haas.
Alonso put in a memorable performance in Austin after being flung through the air in a collision with Lance Stroll in lap 22, which damaged his car. He recovered to finish seventh on the track.
25 laps after that collision, Alonso’s right wing mirror was blown out of the car as he was passing Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
Haas objected to the damaged mirror because they felt the FIA should have shown Alonso the black and orange flag, which indicated a driver had to go down to the pit to fix a damaged car.
Magnussen has exhibited the flag three times this year – in Canada, Hungary and Singapore. On all three occasions, Haas and the Danish driver felt the flag was unnecessary and ruined their race.
Managers agreed that Alonso should have been shown the same, giving him a 30-second retroactive penalty – the equivalent of taking a 10-second stop penalty in race conditions. With Alonso far ahead of the score, Sebastian Vettel is seventh, Magnussen is eighth, Yuki Tsunoda is ninth and Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon is 10th.
Alonso’s car was repaired at a stop shortly after the Stroll incident, but managers claim it was returned to the racetrack in an unsafe condition.
Alpine argued during the hearing that there was only one car behind Alonso when the mirror was loose and that the team was advising the two-time world champion about clearances throughout.
They also point to an earlier incident where Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were allowed to drive without a mirror at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix. However, the FIA said the mirror hit a few laps before falling off.
Jo Bauer, FIA technical delegate, thinks the mirror may have hit another driver.
The FIA ruling said the managers were “deeply concerned” that Alonso was not presented with the black and orange flags during the race.
Haas also opposed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez after the race for a similar reason. Perez lost the front wing shield for several laps after colliding with Valtteri Bottas in the first minute of the race.
However, FIA managers dismissed an objection to Perez’s car, disagreeing that the final sticker was dangerous.
On that objection, the ruling said: “Mr Bauer explained that after the last plate fell off, Red Bull contacted him and sent him detailed photographs of the front wing.
“Mr Bauer determined that the vehicle was not in an unsafe condition.”
