Fernando Alonso warns that Haas’ US Grand Prix protest against his damaged Alpine represents “a huge problem” for F1 if it is upheld MexicoGP
then lodged a protest against the circumstances that led to an investigation into Alonso’s result and penalty, because Haas submitted its protest 24 minutes after the cutoff time for such action and because FIA race control officials never showed Alonso the black-and-orange flag indicating they felt his car was unsafe.
“First of all, you cannot appeal any decision of time penalties – that’s how the rules are written,” he said. “They thought the car was safe to keep driving. The car went to parc ferme, passed all the scrutineering, green light on parc ferme, and then the protest arrived too late.“And if this is the right decision to take, it will open a huge problem for the future in Formula 1.
Alonso, whose reported 42G impact in the crash with Stroll does not appear to have resulted in him suffering any ill-effects ahead of this weekend’s race, called his Sunday at Austin “a rollercoaster of emotions”.