Several hours after the conclusion of the 2022 F1 United States Grand Prix race, the Haas team filed a protest with the FIA that took direct aim at the cars of Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez for allegedly running unsafely.
Despite the fact that the protest reached the stewards 24 minutes later than the time established for it, the FIA made an exception and decided to accept it with a very unfortunate outcome for the Asturian Alpine driver, who received a 30-second penalty and lost all his points.
However, Gunther Steiner, director of the American team, assured that his protest did not want to deliberately harm anyone, but that the objective of the Haas F1 Team was to seek some coherence in the FIA after its cars were forced to pitting several times this season being deemed “unsafe” due to some damage.
” It wasn’t targeting anyone in particular ,” Steiner told Motorsport.com. “I mean, for me it has to be consistent. The FIA is the one who regulates all this and it has to be consistent.
“If a car is missing a mirror and the rule says you have to have two mirrors, why accept that after an accident you only have one left? You still have to have two.”
“Sometimes it’s right and sometimes it’s not right. We have to find consistency, that you know what’s right and what’s not , and that’s what we’ve tried to find out.”
“We saw how his mirror moved. They should have put out a black and orange flag. I think he should be disqualified, because he doesn’t have a safe car. That’s the same as when your headrest comes off, you have to pit and change it. Steiner said in reference to Alonso’s rear-view mirror controversy.
Regarding the situation of Checo Pérez , which ended without a sanction, the Haas man explained that it had been a different case and asked the FIA to do something about it, pointing out that a destroyed front wing was more unsafe than a completely detached wing.
“The front wing is different. If you lose it completely, that’s fine, you have to pit. But if a piece falls off and you say it’s fine, you don’t have to. That’s the difference.”
“There are several ways to make a front wing and we settled on a safer way where it doesn’t break to pieces. Letting it come off completely is apparently a lot safer than keeping it without a piece,” Steiner concluded.
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