Alpine to appeal Alonso’s US GP penalty after losing points finish

Alpine has confirmed it will protest the post-race time penalty handed to Fernando Alonso after the United States Grand Prix, believing Haas missed the deadline to lodge an appeal.

Alonso finished P7 in Austin despite being involved in a mid-race crash with Lance Stroll that sent his car airborne, recovering to the points positions after pitting to assess his cars damage.

After the chequered flag, Haas lodged a protest against Alonso claiming his Alpine car was unsafe to continue due to his right-hand mirror moving before it eventually fell off.

The stewards hit the two-time world champion with a 30-second time penalty that dropped him to 15th place, as the FIA agreed with Haas’ protest that the car was not in a safe enough condition to continue racing.

Alpine issued a statement confirming it would take the matter further by appealing Alonso’s penalty, insisting the team “acted fairly and deemed the car remained structurally safe” after the Stroll incident.

“The FIA has the right to black and orange flag a car during the race if they consider it unsafe and, on this occasion, they assessed the car and decided not to action the flag,” Alpine said.

“Moreover, after the race, the FIA technical delegate considered the car legal.”

The FIA stewards later acknowledged that Alonso had not been shown the black and orange flag, even after Haas twice reported the Spaniard’s mirror was loose.

Alpine went on to claim that Haas’ protest should not have been accepted as it had been lodged past the specified deadline.

“Due to the protest being lodged 24 minutes past the specified deadline, it should not have been accepted and therefore the penalty should be considered as invalid,” the team added.

“As a result of this point, the team has protested the admissibility of the original Haas F1 Team protest.”

While the initial FIA ruling noted Haas lodged its appeal 24 minutes after the deadline, the stewards deemed its protest was compliant as it was not possible to meet the time limit in this instance.

Should Alpine’s protest be granted, a new hearing is likely to take place ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.