Alpine appeal to reverse Franco Colapinto penalty after Mexican Grand Prix, Digi Mart USA News: While Alpine, Franco Colapinto and his supporters continue to express their displeasure over the controversial penalty that moved the Argentine driver from seventh place at the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix, the team is working on an appeal. The goal is to overturn the punishment based on a regulatory loophole.
Although penalties for failing to respect yellow flags are usually considered closed cases by the FIA, the team hopes to use the Right of Review. This extraordinary procedure allows a case to be reopened if defensive elements were not analyzed during the initial hearing.
The penalty that dropped Franco Colapinto to 15th place was based on a speed reduction considered insufficient under yellow flags. According to the regulations, a time 5 percent slower than expected is used as a reference, although the final decision also considers throttle and brake data and track conditions, leaving considerable room for interpretation by the officials.
The team has a partially favorable precedent from June. On that occasion, Pierre Gasly managed to reopen a case after presenting new evidence about pit-lane speed measurement, reversing two five-second penalties that had cost him third place in Monaco.
However, the matter ended with the FIA International Court of Appeal, which ultimately returned the driver to seventh place after submissions from McLaren and Red Bull.
