Aston Martin lodges protest over Austrian GP results

The podium (L to R): Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari, second; Phil Turner (GBR) Red Bull Racing Chief Mechanic; Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing, race winner; Sergio Perez (MEX) Red Bull Racing, third. 02.07.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 10, Austrian Grand Prix, Spielberg, Austria, Race Day. - www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: Moy / XPB Images

The Aston Martin F1 team has filed a formal protest to the results of today's Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, won by Max Verstappen with Charles Leclerc in second place.

A large number of drivers had lap times deleted during the race, with nine doing so repeatedly enough to earn a five second penalty which was served during the race at the next pit stop, or after the finish as a add-on to their time.

But Aston alleges that several track limit violations werew not penalised, and that if they had been then it would have affected the outcome of the race as a whole.

“A protest has been lodged by Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team against the provisional classification [of the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix,” a statement from the stewards said.

“The protest claims that a number of cars were not penalized for a breach of Article 33.3 of the Sporting Regulations," it explained. “A hearing will be conducted at 1830 hrs."

The stewards added that the existence of a number of lap times deleted due to exceeding track limits had come to their attention after Aston's protest had been filed.

Accordingly, the stewards said that they had requested Race Control to perform a reconciliation of all deleted laps and the penalties applied.

“We note that Race Control dealt with in excess of 100 deleted laps during the race," the statement added.

A subsequent update from the FIA said: "During the Grand Prix, Race Control was tasked with reviewing well over 1,200 instances where a car was reported as potentially leaving the track. The results will be updated once the review of those which were not able to be reviewed during the race is complete."

While it's not known which drivers might be affected by the review, Sergio Perez was noted by several drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso during the race for going off track without citation.

Perez finished on the podium in third place after starting from P15. Hamilton finished in seventh after being among those to serve a five second penalty on pit lane.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.