Unbelievable: Alonso saved from penalty…for a dictionary!

The penalty that fell on Fernando Alonso in Austin gave rise to a remarkable, controversial and at many points incomprehensible process. And it was resolved in a surprising way: in Alpine going to the dictionary Oxford and quoted his words so that the FIA reconsider in his presentation of the appeal, something that later became the key to remove the penalty from the Asturian.

This is the process

Hass requested a post-race penalty in Austin for Fernando Alonso for driving a car that did not meet safety requirements because he drove for a while with a moving rear-view mirror, and another time, without the right rear-view mirror. Alpine appealed the subsequent penalty because the FIA he admitted in his official punishment document that Haas filed his complaint 24 minutes after the time set for it. Despite this, the FIA he considered the protest valid and that served for Alpine to retaliate.

However, for the first time, the FIA ​​rejected Alpine’s appeal after a meeting held on Thursday because the French team he launched his appeal in no time.

But Alpine request the right to review. Alan Permainetheir sports director, stated that they protested late because at the time of the penalty they did not know that Haas had filed his protest 24 minutes late. “It wasn’t until 8:53 pm on race day that the team learned that the original protest was filed 24 minutes after the usual 30-minute deadline.”Alpine said. For this reason, the FIA ​​finally considered that there was a “new element” contributed by the French team that led them to review their decision.

At that point, in the new and definitive meeting held last Thursday night in Mexico, what Alpine revealed is relevant, leading us to focus on a dictionary.

Haas said he filed his protest late because an FIA official said that instead of half an hour (dictated by the regulations), the American team had one hour to file its complaint. Haas would have submitted a handwritten protest to the stewards within 30 minutes if an FIA race management official had not informed them they had one hour to do so. the document is secure.

Alpine and took the dictionary from the sleeve

Alpine attacked there, recalling that the regulations indicate that protests must be presented “within 30 minutes” and that “The FIA ​​cannot authorize a competitor to breach the International Sporting Code.” Only that margin can be extended “unless it is impossible for a party to present the protest at that time”.

So they went to the dictionary and looked up the definition of ‘impossible’. “The word impossible sets an ‘extremely high’ requirement; the Oxford Dictionary defines it as ‘something that cannot happen or be done’ and, in this case, nothing prevents Haas from filing suit within the 30-minute time limit,” Alpine argued in its final filing.

In other words, Alpine went to the dictionary to clarify that Haas had no impediment barring him from presenting his complaint within that 30-minute period. Nothing aligns with the definition of ‘impossible’. Haas admitted that he could have lodged his protest during that 30-minute period and that’s where the discussion ended, with the FIA ​​backing down and returning 6 points to Alonso and his seventh position from Austin.

Steiner revealed that Wittich told him he had 1 hour to protest

But the matter does not end here. To make the curl even more curly, Gunther Steinerboss Hassrevealed at the Mexican F1 GP that the “official” who told him they had one hour to protest instead of 30 minutes was the race director himself, Niels Wittich. Amazing.

That mistake was added to those made by the race management of not showing black and orange flags to Fernando Alonso during the race despite the fact that it was shown on several occasions that he was driving without a rear-view mirror. And the fact that the technical delegate of the FIA ​​​​​​​​considered the condition of all the cars, including Alonso’s, and later assured in the sanction document that Fernando’s car was “unsafe”. One stupid thing after another.