Aston Martin say the spate of penalties issued after the Austrian Grand Prix was what they expected to see as a result of their protest.
The team protested the provisional result of the Austrian Grand Prix as they did not believe all the track limits infringements which occured during the race had been counted by race control. Eight penalties were issued during the race but a further 12 were handed down as a result of Aston Martin’s protest.
It took the FIA five hours to announce the final race results once it had processed all the track limits infringements which occured during the race. The sport’s governing body said it had to examine 1,200 potential infringements.
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack admitted he was “shocked” by that number: “1,200 seemed quite a lot to me.”
However the team was not surprised the FIA eventually issued a total of 20 penalties to nine different drivers. “The infringements and the penalties that came were in line with our expectations,” said Krack in response to a question from RaceFans.
Krack explained why the team decided to protest after the provisional classification for the race was issued, at which point only eight penalties had been applied.
“We saw that not all the infringements were penalised in the race,” he said. “When we got the provisional race classification, we saw that it was still not done and then we decided to protest.”
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The opportunity for teams to protest the result of a race is limited. Protests can be brought within half an hour of the provisional classification being issued. “From that moment, the countdown runs for us as a team, and then we decided that we have to take action,” said Krack.
The team’s drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll moved up to fifth and ninth in the final classification as a result of the penalties. Krack said the team was always “confident” its drivers would not fall foul of the track limits.
While rivals such as Ferrari and McLaren failed in their appeals to the stewards at the rounds in Australia and Canada respectively, this is the second time this year Aston Martin have successfully petitioned them to amend a result in their favour, following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when a penalty for failing to serve a penalty correctly was quashed. Krack said this area of their operation is a strength of the team’s.
“It is just a matter of preparation,” he said. “It is part of the race to look at that, after a race or if you are protested or if something is not the way you think it has to be.
“We have a strong team at home. We have a strong team at the track that is preparing [for] such situations well. And I think this has helped us in these two occasions to be successful with our points.”
Some drivers have called for changes to improve the enforcement of track limits. The FIA has repeatedly told the Red Bull Ring to reinstate the gravel traps which used to border turns nine and 10, where most of the infringements took place.
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However Krack believes there is no problem as long as the rules are enforced consistently and correctly. “The drivers have to stick on the tracks and if they are not, they have to receive the right penalty,” he said. “It is as simple as that.
“There were 10 drivers who managed to keep the track limits. Our drivers were instructed that we had the penalty last year. I think their ears were bleeding from us telling them what the penalty will be and they managed to stay on the track. The same for seven other drivers. So I think it’s possible.”
Due to the high number of penalties collected by some drivers, the stewards took the decision to impose more lenient penalties on those who committed the most infractions. Instead of progressing from five and 10-second penalties to harsher drive-through and stop-go sanctions, the stewards applied a “reset” and gave repeat offenders further five and 10-second penalties.
Krack had no complaint about the decision to soften the penalties. “All we want is consistent application of, first of all, infringements and application,” he said. “So I think the way it was handled is fine.”
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2023 British Grand Prix
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