Aston Martin Formula 1 team filed a protest against the Austrian Grand Prix’s results after the race on Sunday evening.
The classification remains unclear as a result of the stewards confirming Aston Martin’s protest against the Austrian Grand Prix’s official results.
Aston Martin filed an official protest against the Austrian Grand Prix results at the Red Bull Ring in Austria hours after the race had ended. The stewards have now upheld the protest.
Fernando Alonso finished sixth as Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten to give the Silverstone team a double-points result at the Red Bull Ring.
The FIA quickly acknowledged that Aston took issue with the way the stewards imposed track limit penalties, despite the team’s initial refusal to disclose the specifics of its protest.
The stewards conducted a hearing at 18:30 Austrian time after they confirmed that Aston Martin had filed a protest.
“A protest has been lodged by Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team against the provisional classification,” read the FIA statement. “The protest claims that a number of cars were not penalised for a breach of Article 33.3 of the Sporting Regulations. A hearing will be conducted at 1830 hrs.
“In the meantime, the Stewards, having become aware of the existence of a number of deleted laps (due to exceeding track limits) that were drawn to our attention after the receipt of the protest, have requested Race Control to perform a reconciliation of all deleted laps with penalties applied.
“We note that Race Control dealt with in excess of 100 deleted laps during the race.”
Track limit violations were rampant during the Spielberg race, with eight drivers receiving five-second penalties for violating the lines mostly in Turns 9 and 10.
While Stroll also took the checkered flag closely behind Pierre Gasly in the Alpine, Alonso finished less than five seconds behind Norris’ McLaren. Therefore, both drivers would move up a position if there were any additional five-second penalties.
Red Bull’s streak of winning every race in 2023 was maintained by reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who won the race thanks to his dominant drive.
Following the hearing, the stewards stated that Aston Martin’s protest had been upheld. As a result, up to 1,200 track limits infractions will be investigated as the classification is now entirely up for review.
“The Stewards determined that, as it was lodged on time and complied with the requirements of Chapter 13 of the FIA International Sporting Code, it was an admissible protest,” said the stewards.
“An examination of the list of deleted lap times provided to the Stewards by Race Control, revealed that a number of track limit infringements had not previously been referred to the Stewards for potential penalty.
“It was determined that some of these infringements warranted a penalty that was not previously applied when the Provisional Classification was published.
“These penalties will be reflected in the Final Classification.”
