The Haas Formula 1 team has been referred to the stewards for an unusual alleged rule breach after Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.
Haas had the two slowest cars at Zandvoort as Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman qualified 18th and 19th, only ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll that did not set a laptime after crashing.
However, on Saturday evening, a report from FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer revealed Haas did not cover Bearman’s car two hours after the chequered flag at the end of qualifying.
He referred this to the stewards for an alleged breach of article 40.6 of the sporting regulations, which says within two hours of the end of qualifying all cars must be covered and ready for FIA seals to be applied.
This is when cars spend the night in parc ferme conditions, which begins when a car leaves the pitlane for the first time during qualifying.
A breach of Article 40.6 also constitutes a breach of Article 40.9 - which is what expressly forbids changes to any part on the car or make changes to the set-up of the suspension whilst the car is being held under parc ferme conditions.
So if the stewards find Haas guilty then Bearman will be penalised by a single penalty for the combination of both offences - which for 40.9 demands starting from the pitlane.
It is unclear if this was an error from Haas or intentional because it was planning to make set-up changes to Bearman’s car in parc ferme conditions and start from the pitlane anyway.
In the team’s press release on Saturday, though, team principal Ayao Komatsu had lamented a disappointing result that did not reflect the potential the car had - something he has been critical of Haas for several races now.
“It’s a tough result to take,” Komatsu said.
“You can see when we get things right, for example – the potential of the car from the first run in FP3 and Q1 with Ollie – the car is very good.
“But for one reason or another, we haven’t been able to get the best out of it consistently.
“We have to put it together. If we work together and really pay attention to the detail and deliver, I have no doubt we can get there.
“But we need to get there as we’re going to run out of races to perform this year.”
Haas is ninth in the constructors’ championship having slipped behind Aston Martin, Sauber and Racing Bulls over the last few events.
