'FIA is still making the same mistakes that got Masi fired': Medland

Only in Formula 1 could we have a situation where a team is protesting the outcome of another team’s protest by protesting their right to protest in the first place.

And all over an issue that it turns out should have been addressed by race control long before it could have become a battle of the team managers in the stewards’ office.

I feel like I’ve been criticising the FIA a lot recently, and I really don’t want to. I want to be talking about how great this sport can be, and when you’ve just had a race that featured some incredible on-track action, a thrilling fight for the win and all in front of a record crowd, that should be easy.

Instead, the story since the United States Grand Prix has once again been the governing body’s handling of something.

I will give the FIA some praise, but it’s hardly glowing. The depth of the analysis into race control’s failings at the Japanese Grand Prix was good, as was the fact that a full written report was delivered to the teams and drivers – and circulated to the media to ensure fans were aware too – before the next race weekend got underway.

But the need for that analysis to be so thorough was due to the errors made at Suzuka that fortunately were not more costly than Pierre Gasly having a major fright.

To its credit, the FIA admitted that mistakes were made. Race control missed Gasly making his pitstop and so hadn’t noticed he would be catching the pack up at speed, while it had also followed a protocol of deploying recovery vehicles in conditions that were not suitable.

The problem now is that at the very next race, the stewards were writing that they were “deeply concerned” about the lack of action taken by race control on a matter that involved safety.

In Singapore, Guenther Steiner was furious that Kevin Magnussen was given a black and orange flag – forcing him to pit for repairs because his car was deemed to be in an unsafe condition – when discussions had taken place about such a situation after Haas was penalised in the same way on two previous occasions.

At this point, I still side with race control. No team is going to want to make a pitstop for some flailing bodywork, and they will always argue that it isn’t a danger, especially when it’s a small piece. But at 200mph, a small piece can have a devastating impact on the car behind as the Halo will offer little protection if the debris detaches in the direction of a cockpit.

It felt like in Singapore they were doubling down on their previous stance and showing they would not compromise if there was any safety risk. So that makes what happened in Austin even more perplexing.

Sergio Perez’s front wing endplate was loose for five laps. He damaged it on lap one against Valtteri Bottas, and lost it on lap six when overtaking Lance Stroll. Five laps was plenty of time for the stewards to issue a black and orange flag to prevent it flying off at all, especially given the speed they have reacted to Magnussen in the past (he picked up damage on the opening lap in Hungary and came into the pits on lap five after the decision from race control).

Perez should have received the same flag, and should have been in the pits before the big chunk of carbon fibre made its escape. Haas was right to protest, if only to highlight the inconsistency that cannot be allowed when it’s on grounds of safety.

Fernando Alonso’s loose mirror was an even worse oversight, given it spent so many laps precariously shaking. If you’re going to deem a front wing endplate dangerous – on a Haas at least – then how you can not think the mirror could do just as much damage is beyond me. And there were more than 20 laps where it was threatening to break free before it finally did so, yet race control did not take any action despite multiple calls from the Haas team manager (and likely other teams too).

I know the fact Alonso somehow recovered to score points was incredible after that incident, and as fans we all want to see as many incredible feats as possible, but it’s clear to me that race control dropped the ball massively in this case.

What’s not so clear is why, or what the the remedy is post-race. Certainly there have been times when those running a race have worked effectively, as the Magnussen incidents show. But they didn’t in Austin, which is why they were left open to protest.

The only difference between the Perez and Alonso incidents is the fact that Alonso made a pitstop and was sent back out with the damaged mirror, whereas Perez was never in the pit lane between sustaining damage and it falling off. When penalising Alonso, the stewards stated it was agreed by the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis and Jo Bauer that the car was unsafe with only one mirror, while Bauer also said the flapping mirror was unsafe.

But if it was deemed unsafe with the loose bodywork then Red Bull surely would have got the same penalty for Perez. So from that we can deduce that in the stewards’ view once the mirror was gone is the only time the car was unsafe and therefore should have been called into the pits, but before then it was acceptable.

Confused? Yeah, me too.