Four F1 stars handed penalties for US GP as rules broken just hours before race

22 October 2023 , 17:12

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Aston Martin and Haas' cars will start the US GP from the pit lane (Image: Hasan Bratic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

Aston Martin and Haas decided to take both their cars out of parc ferme to make set-up changes hours before the United States Grand Prix.

However, the decision comes at a cost. It means Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg will both be starting the race from the pit lane, as will their Aston Martin counterparts Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

It comes after both teams brought significant upgrades to the Circuit of the Americas in the hope it would give their respective seasons a boost. But the Sprint format restricted them to both an hour of practice to learn as much as they could about their new cars.

And it meant they discovered in qualifying and during the Sprint on Saturday that their upgraded cars were not performing as expected. In the hope of improving their chances in the Grand Prix, both teams opted to make set-up changes.

But that meant taking the cars out of parc ferme conditions, which is against the rules. As a result, all four drivers will be starting in the pit lane. The stewards confirmed the outcomes in separate decision documents for each racer.

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They showed that both teams sought the approval of the FIA technical delegate before carrying out the set-up changes. With all four drivers previously set to start 14th or below anyway, the teams clearly felt changing the set-up of the cars gave them a better chance of success in the race.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said after the Sprint that he was concerned over the lack of impact the upgrades had. The team had purposely not been adding bits to their cars for months so they could place all their development efforts on this switch of concept.

But Magnussen and Hulkenberg qualified poorly on Friday night and did not set the Sprint race alight either. "It didn't go to plan today," said Steiner. "We've got more work to do but, initially, we're not very happy with what's happened, so we have to see how we tackle tomorrow.

"We found a few things and went in the wrong direction, but it's difficult to jump to a conclusion after one practice, two qualifying sessions and one short race. But at the moment, we have to find more as the upgrade has not done what we expected."

Meanwhile, Aston Martin racer Alonso said of his own team's struggles: "It was a bit risky to bring maybe the upgrades to a Sprint format. You rely so much on a perfect FP1 with two cars doing different tests between the two, and we had a very chaotic FP1. Since that moment, I think we are on the back foot."

Daniel Moxon