FLOYD ON F1: Red Bull celebrates in shadow of pending penalty

What a weekend in Austin, Texas, for the United States Grand Prix. Unfortunately a cloud hung over the F1 world following the announcement of the passing, due to cancer, of 78-year-old Dietrich Mateschitz, co-founder and 49% owner of Red Bull GmbH.

The result of the race was a fitting tribute to a man of great vision in the sporting world.

With Max Verstappen’s win, 2022 has proved to be a momentous year in the annals of Red Bull history.
After an unusually poor pit stop, the Dutchman staged a remarkable recovery, snatching victory from leader Lewis Hamilton and ensuring the constructor’s title for the team.

Under a cloud

It was not an easy weekend for the Red Bull F1 team as once again there was further speculation regarding the budget cap breach. Found guilty of a “minor” overspend, the FIA are meeting with the team over the punishment.

A report in RacingNews365 suggests Red Bull had met the budget cap with $4 million (about R73.5 million) to spare, but FIA investigators decided four further expenditure items were to be included.
Staff gardening leave, paid to aerodynamicist Dan Fallows when he left to join the Aston Martin F1 team, spare parts, tax and catering costs, the total of these items pushed them over the limit by $1.8 million.

The spare parts issue is apparently due to a rule change on how to “carry over” the cost of spares and the tax issue is awaiting a $1.4 million rebate from the receiver. The final decision, due at COTA, was postponed following the news of Mateschitz’s death. Let us hope this is settled sooner than later.

Haas protest

The final results of the US Grand Prix had been accepted provisionally until Haas submitted a protest against Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso for technical infringements. Haas claimed both cars were driven in an unsafe condition and no action had been taken.

Yet the Haas team had been given the black and orange flag on three occasions this year for similar situations.

In the Perez matter, it was a front wing end plate, damaged in an earlier contact.

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F1 safety upheld

The FIA’s representative explained the end plate had fallen off and the stewards agreed the car was not in an unsafe condition. Thus, this protest was dismissed.

The Alonso incident, following the accident with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, resulted in damage to the Alpine’s right hand mirror, which was hanging from the car and ultimately fell off. The stewards agreed a flapping mirror was dangerous and could come loose and hit another driver causing injury.

They further stated that an F1 car needs two mirrors and the car was unsafe to be driven with a mirror missing.

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This protest was upheld and the stewards imposed a 10-second Stop and Go penalty, a 30-second time penalty applied after the race, on Alonso, but no penalty points were issued as this was considered a team matter.

This dropped the Spaniard from seventh to 15th position. Therefore Aston Martin’s Sebastien Vettel moved to seventh, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen to eighth, Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri into ninth and Alonso’s team-mate Esteban Ocon took the final point for 10th spot.

The first of the season’s last three F1 races take place in Mexico on Sunday.