Haas 'Right of Review' request over US Grand Prix result rejected by stewards

Haas’s Right of Review request over the Austin race results has been rejected by stewards after they deemed there was 'no significant and relevant' new elements. The team had submitted the request earlier this month, which had related to track limit infringements, including those by Williams’ Alex Albon.

Albon had finished ninth at the Circuit of The Americas and was reported to the stewards during the race for allegedly leaving the track without justifiable reason multiple times in Turn 6. However, no further action was taken as it was deemed there was insufficient proof. Haas's driver Nico Hulkenberg had finished 11th in the Grand Prix.

READ MORE: Stewards to consider Haas ‘Right of Review’ request over US Grand Prix result

A new hearing over the Right of Review was subsequently convened for Wednesday, November 8 – before being adjourned to today. Alongside representatives from the Haas team, Aston Martin, Williams, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were also represented in the hearing – the latter two having requested permission to attend as concerned parties.

For the Right of Review request to have been accepted, the stewards were required to determine if any evidence presented to them met each and every one of the criteria required – namely that the evidence had to be significant, relevant, new and unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision.

Haas cited four pieces of evidence, namely video footage from the car of Albon, as well as footage from the cars of Williams’ Logan Sargeant, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll – the footage showing these cars “leaving the track on several occasions at the apex of Turn 6 during the race”.

During the hearing, Haas had also submitted that during the Team Managers’ meeting held before the Mexican Grand Prix, the FIA Race Director and the FIA Single Seater Sporting Director allegedly made several statements indicating that the track limit supervision at Turn 6 in Austin had been "not ideal".

READ MORE: Sargeant admits he was 'just not quick enough' after coming close to scoring in Sao Paulo GP

Additionally Haas claimed in the hearing that the petition to review the Albon decision needed to be seen separately from the petition to review the final classification of the race. It was also noted by the stewards that Haas had provided “no additional evidence during the hearing but reinforced its position outlined in its written submission”.

Regarding the onboard footage of Albon’s car, the stewards ruled that while it was significant, it had been available to Haas, and therefore was not new and also not relevant – while the other three elements submitted were also judged to be not significant, as well as not new or relevant and also available to Haas.

As a result the Petition for the Right of Review was rejected due to no significant and relevant new element that was unavailable to Haas at the time of the decision.

Meanwhile, despite the outcome of the hearing, the stewards also noted that they found “their inability to properly enforce the current standard for track limits for all competitors completely unsatisfactory and therefore strongly recommend to all concerned that a solution to prevent further reoccurrences of this widespread problem be rapidly deployed”.

Improvements put forward included “better technology solutions, track modifications, a combination thereof, or a different regulation and enforcement standard” – adding that “further solutions should be found before the start of the 2024 season”.