Alonso's silence after the boneheaded move from Stroll was telling - remind us where he's driving next year ? LOL

Some stuff came out on the Cost cap breach. Red bull apparently breached the 145Mil Euro cap despite turning in a 141 Mil return, so 4 under. But the FIA accounting nerds added back 5.8 mil.
Apparently 800K for an employee that is leaving for Aston that was moved from red bull to to redbull advanced technologies (where he never worked, but then again he wasn't working for redbull anymore either) - kinda seems fair maybe possibly ?

Then Redbull decided to offer free meals to its personnel at the factory cafeteria and got dinged for $1.2 mi there, hence the Toto quip about free sandwiches.

Finally some accounting on spare parts from 2021 reused on the 2022 car, totaling 1.4 mil.

I am truly not a Horner/Marko/Redbull fan in general but it does point to a small violation and doesn't seem super egregious on the first year of a new accounting system, honestly...They should get penalized obviously, but possibly not as hard as some wanted...

Great race.
 

About the spin just after the start, it looked to me like Ham may have nudged Carlos just before Russel hit him. Probably wrong, but looked like that to me.

I am not a Ham hater !!

Alonso's silence after the boneheaded move from Stroll was telling - remind us where he's driving next year ? LOL

He made a comment on the radio right when it happened. Luckily it wasn’t worse for either.

I have no doubt Alonso will catch up with Stroll and have a discussion . That discussion may be one sided 😁

Oh I heard that - I should have said “relative silence” :-) instead of “that bonehead tried to kill me by moving when being passed” he said “late move” - still LOL. He knows who’s paying him next year. Can’t believe that car finished !
Especially relative to Ocon.

Yeah. A great ad for how well Alpine build their cars. Amazing he finished where he did. Stroll is well known for moving over. I suppose Alonso has known tendencies too. 😀

Alonso receives time penalty for unsafe car dropping him to 15th . Protest was filed by Haas against Alonso and Perez . The protest against Perez was dropped by the FIA .

https://racingnews365.com/no-further-action-taken-against-red-bull-in-haas-us-grand-prix-stewards-protest

Alpine has to appeal that. They shouldn't be penalized for a decision not made by race control after the fact. If it's for safety you either call it in the moment or do an internal review of your own procedures afterwards, don't penalize the "offender".

I mean everyone knew the car was broken, that it had loose parts and lost the mirror, but they didn't remove it from track. Not Alpine's fault.

I could be wrong but I believe the rules state you have to have two mirrors . His right mirror was gone so the team should have fixed that . At least that's my understanding .

As expected Alpine to file penalty protest .

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alpine-to-protest-alonso-f1-penalty-after-losing-us-gp-points/10389585/

Good. That's all that is wrong with F1 rules... Way after the fact ruling to boot ! The fact that car survived, the driver battled like a demon to score points, looked totally exhausted post race - it was good stuff that everyone appreciated ! F1 doesn't need to shoot themselves in the foot like that - rule at the time or not at all. I get why Haas did that, they got dinged twice at least with unnecessary meatball stuff, but nobody looks good coming out of this - I'm liking Steiner less now, which is hard to do..

The appeal will probably fail, FIA sucks really bad these days... the ultimate irony is ... Alonso lost this mirror because Stroll was not looking into his !!! And he raced without one better than Stroll with 2... Shame on you FIA.

Herta signs with Andretti through 2027. Maybe reading between the lines the F1 Andretti team is on the horizon?

Porsche in F1 might still be on.....
https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/150218/deal-between-porsche-and-williams-almost-complete-will-become-50-per-cent-owner.html

Also heard the secret Russian backed F1 team has collapsed and being closed down or is closed down, good riddance!

Hope the Andretti entry happens, would be good to see the F1 race team gene pool diluted a bit :cool:

On the one hand I like Williams "the team" a lot more than Redbull so that's nice. On the other I wish Porsche used its $ for something other than buying the last F1 team on the grid. Like offering shorter gears on their cars, or making enough GT3s that regular folks car one day buy them used without 150K markups.

The track management of F1 is such a mess right now. Cranes on track in Japan, stupid pre-Quali penalties making grids completely unfathomable without a PHD, stupid penalties during and after the race (Alonso?) , track stewards conflicting with the race director, race director deciding championships, huge leaks about teams breaching accounting rules and yet no quick penalties announced, it's a cluster !

It's official now: Sauber to become the Audi works team for 2026 .

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/63397350

This could be a very good thing. Remember when they dominated LeMans?

Maybe they will provide a twin turbo diesel engine 😋

IDK, didn't the Euros ban diesel?

Alonso wins appeal, reinstated back to P7 at Austin

Good.

I find this reversal interesting . I have read a few F1 websites this morning regarding the reversal . What stands out to me is each article says track officials agreed that Alonso's car was a safety violation with the right mirror flopping around and eventually being spit out onto the track .

The ruling was reversed because the Haas filing missed the filing deadline by 24 minutes . So the validity of the penalty was sound but overturned by a technicality .

Three times this season Haas was flagged to bring in K Mags car to fix loose end plates . End plates that were still attached . The fear was the end plate " could " fly off and hit a driver .

The right mirror on Alonso's car was flopping around via on board camera . It then did leave the car and " could " have hit a driver . I fail to see the difference in those scenarios . Am I missing something ?

No, Alonso should have been given the meatball. The issue is that he was penalized after the race because of a safety decision that was not made during the race. During the race getting called in to fix something isn't really a penalty, it's an immediate safety hazard that needs fixing, but applying a time penalty afterwards doesn't fix any safety problems, it only covers for the FIA's mistakes.

The only ones who should be penalized for Alonso not getting the meatball are the FIA leadership.

Also the 30 second penalty was hot garbage because the pit deficit was what, 21, 22 seconds? So Alonso would have received an almost ten second extra penalty for the FIA dropping the ball?

I get Haas' frustration, but the whole thing was a load of ****.

FIA needs to get their act together, their inconsistency is hurting the sport.

I agree with Alonso should have been penalized real time vs after the race . With so many cameras in place and a full team of officials who's sole job is to monitor track incidents there is no excuse to penalize after the race.

Only caveat being if something happens in the last 2-3 laps and there may not be sufficient time to analyze . Hopefully everyone involved reviews , gets better and moves forward .

I so want to see Checo win this weekend!

You and every Mexican citizen who follows F1!! (I do too!)

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/63430407

Red Bull fine announced

I wonder if the fine counts against the cost cap for 2023?

Per the FIA, if redbull has applied its (complicated new system) tax credits correctly the breach would have been a mere 0.37% over..
Not exactly egregious cheating as Toto would have liked.
So as much as I dislike redbull/Horner/Marko, 7 mil + 10% aero time penalty is quite fair... possibly harsh even ! I think we can move on !!!
I'm shocked they reversed themselves on Alonso, glad but shocked !!!

Between Hammy and Toto' feigned outrage, you'd have thought Redbull were out murdering small children or at least making them work in Nike factories for a few cents per day

I see no reason for the RBR penalty.

OTOH, the saga has uncovered a possible tax loophole for the teams to exploit in the future.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/63438890

So Ferrari not happy with the slap on the wrist, Horner calls it draconian. Let the whining begin

$100m was the highest fine ever in F1. This RBR fine is second highest.

I didn't know Ferrari were fined $1m when Schumi gave Rubens the 1st place trophy and put him on top step in 2002 Austrian GP.

https://wtf1.com/post/heres-where-red-bulls-7m-sanction-ranks-on-the-biggest-fines-in-f1-history/

Not a real exciting race, but wow, Danica Patrick was looking HOT!

It was great to see Daniel doing a lot of passing, but he did take out one other car.

Aside from Ricciardo’s NASCAR moment, it was mostly a parade. Poor Alonso tho.

P3 is still the Podium. Congrats Checo.

She adds less than nothing to the coverage. :rolleyes:

Great eye candy!

^^Agreed!!^^:D