Haas launched an official complaint against the result of the United States Grand Prix and accused the Formula 1 stewards of inconsistent application of black and orange flags.
That particular colour is one of the less common seen in the sport, but has come out on occasion in 2022. It is waved at a driver when they have damage to their car that the stewards deem to be putting themselves or others at risk, and the racer is then obliged to pit and rectify the problem.
It has happened to Haas on several occasions this season. The most recent was when they were waved at Kevin Magnussen at the Singapore Grand Prix, and that was the third time the team have had a race affected in that way in 2022.
During the US GP in Austin, both Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso picked up damage which left a piece of their car hanging off. But neither of them were shown black and orange flags – and that appears to have enraged team boss Guenther Steiner.
FIA documents show Haas lodged official complaints against both. They were called to meet the stewards at midnight UK time (6pm in Austin) to discuss the admissibility of those protests, with investigations to follow if they were deemed to have a case.
In his post race comments released by Haas, Steiner said: "I'm not really happy about what happened out there with the other cars that are losing bits and pieces and don't get called in like we normally do, so we will follow-up on that one." Magnussen was more blunt, referring to the situation as "bulls**t".
The FIA document read: "The team representative is required to report to the Stewards at 18:00 in relation to the matter. Should one or both of the protests be deemed admissible, separate hearings will be convened at which all relevant parties shall be heard."
Shortly after, the FIA released two more documents which confirmed the Haas complaints had been deemed admissible. Alpine were called to fight their case for Alonso at 6.15pm local time, while representatives of Red Bull will appear at 6.45pm to argue for Perez.
On the protest, Alpine chief Otmar Szafnauer said: "I think it's ridiculous. I mean, it's obvious accident damage. And, you know, the cars are allowed to finish with accident damage, it happens all the time. Not having a mirror is a lot different than not having a front wing that works."
And commenting on Perez's situation, Red Bull chief Christian Horner added: "The piece of the endplate came off. At that point, the wing was structurally safe. We worked with the [FIA] technical delegate to show him that structurally, it was sound, and they were happy with it that."
As of 2am UK time, the stewards were yet to make a decision on Haas' protest.
