F1, Haas appeal dismissed, US GP standings unchanged

F1, Haas appeal dismissed, US GP standings unchanged

The official Formula 1 website reports that Haas's request for a review of the Austin race results was rejected by stewards after finding that there were no "significant and relevant new elements". The team had submitted the request earlier this month in connection with track limit violations, including those of Williams’ Alex Albon.

Albon had finished ninth at the Circuit of The Americas and was reported to stewards during the race for leaving the track without justified reason several times at Turn 6. However, no further action was è taken as it was è deemed that there was insufficient evidence. The Haas driver, Nico Hulkenberg, had finished 11th in the Grand Prix.

Subsequently è a new hearing on the review request was convened for Wednesday, Nov. 8, before being postponed until today. In addition to representatives of the Haas team, Aston Martin, Williams, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were present at the hearing. The latter two had requested permission to attend as interested parties.

For the request for review to be accepted, the stewards had to determine whether the evidence presented met all the required criteria, i.e., that the evidence had to be significant, relevant, new, and unavailable to the parties seeking review at the time of the decision.

Haas cited four pieces of evidence, namely video footage from Albon’s car, as well as footage from the cars of Williams’ Logan Sargeant, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll – the footage showed these cars "leaving the track several times at the apex of Turn 6 during the race".

During the hearing, Haas also claimed that during the Team Managers meeting before the Mexican Grand Prix, the FIA Race Director and the FIA Sporting Director for the single-seaters allegedly made several statements indicating that the supervision of the track limits at Turn 6 in Austin had not been "ideal".

In addition, Haas argued during the hearing that the petition to review the decision on Albon should be considered separately from the petition to review the final race classification. Stewards also noted that Haas had not provided "additional evidence during the hearing but reiterated his position set forth in his written submission".

Regarding the footage on board Albon’s car, the stewards determined that although it was significant, it was available to Haas and therefore was not new or even relevant, while the other three items presented were found to be not significant, not new or relevant, and also available to Haas.

Accordingly, the petition for review è was dismissed due to the lack of significant and relevant new elements not available to Haas at the time of the decision.

Meanwhile, despite the outcome of the hearing, the stewards also noted that they found "completely unsatisfactory their inability to adequately enforce the current standard of track limits for all competitors and strongly recommended that all concerned quickly adopt a solution to prevent further repetition of this widespread problem".

Proposals for improvement included "better technological solutions, track modifications, a combination of both or a different regulatory and enforcement standard", adding that "further solutions should be found before the start of the 2024 season".