McLaren have had their appeal against Oscar Piastri’s deleted lap time during qualifying for the Austrian GP thrown out by the stewards, dues to errors in the technicalities of the appeal documentation.
During Q3, the final part of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri set a lap time good enough to put him in third place on the grid for the start of Sunday’s race, behind his teammate Norris and pole-sitter Verstappen.
However, shortly after the session ended, the Stewards deleted Oscar’s lap time saying that he exceeded track limits at Turn 6. The result was Oscar dropped four grid spots down to 7th place, giving him a very different outlook for the start of the Grand Prix.
The decision by the Stewards was suprising, considering the FIA had installed a new kerb design at Turn 6 which meant track-limit offences would be ‘self-policing’ thanks to a small gravel trap on the boundary of the circuit.
The gravel trap was positioned 1.5 metres away from the white line on the circuit which demarcates the track’s edge. Formula 1 cars are 2 metres wide, so any driver exceeding track limits will put a wheel in the gravel and slow themselves down. This will result in slower lap times, so will negate the need for the stewards to intervene by deleting lap times after the fact. That was the theory, anyway.
The FIA made a lot of noise about this new ‘perfect’ kerb solution at the start of the weekend. So for Oscar to have his lap time deleted when he put half a wheel in the gravel seems like a questionable decision.
For a car to have exceeded track limits, all of its wheels must have crossed the white line at the edge of the circuit. That means they must all be on the light blue line, or further out. The TV cameras didn’t have the necessary angle to show definitively whether this was the case.
The image below shows the best angle seen on TV. It doesn’t show the position of the rear wheel.
Team principal Andrea Stella said “We have lodged a complaint, which has been acknowledged but not yet examined” … “Because we want the opportunity to continue the conversation.”
Stella confirmed that the team did not observe the MCL38 exceeding the limit: “We have asked for clarification. Specifically, we wanted to review the evidence that the car exceeded track limits beyond any reasonable doubt.”
Stella was clear that they were seeking further clarity over the Steward’s decision as from all the evidence available to the McLaren team, it was certainly unclear that Oscar had done anything wrong.
Stewards reject McLaren's appeal
Late in to the evening, the Stewards released their verdict:
“The protest is rejected as it is inadmissable”.
They cited three different reasons why McLaren’s protest was rejected, all of which were due to technicalities with the way in which their protest was made. These were:
- It was addressed to the Clerk of the Course, not the Chairperson of the Stewards
- It did not specify any relevant regulations
- It did not specify against who the protest was lodged
Those three reasons meant that McLaren’s appeal was not valid, so it was rejected.
That’s incredibly frustrating not just for Oscar and McLaren but for most of the Formula 1 community as well.
In light of the FIA’s new ‘perfect’ kerb solution, Oscar’s deleted lap time is confusing. Had the Stewards allowed it to be appealed, the ensuing investigation would have helped provide more clarity for all teams and drivers on what is and isn’t expected. But now, unless McLaren appeal the rejection of their initial appeal, we’ll never know.
The full decision document is below.
In an interview after qualifying had ended, Piastri said “Its embarassing. We do all this work for track limits, put gravel in places, and I didn’t even go off the track. I don’t know why they’ve spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, when you can still have corners you can go off.”
