FIA has rejected McLaren’s ‘Right to Review’ appeal after they found the Woking-based outfit’s new element to be “unsustainable”. The British team lodged the appeal ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, as they wanted more clarity on the rules pertaining to overtaking.
The iconic F1 team was not satisfied with the race stewards’ decision to penalize Lando Norris at last weekend’s US Grand Prix after he overtook his championship rival and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
The British driver was given a five-second time penalty after he did not give the position back and gained an advantage by going outside the track. Norris was demoted back to P4 and lost out on valuable points to Verstappen.
McLaren and Lando Norris were not in agreement with the stewards’ decision as they believed Verstappen pushed the latter wide and asked for the ‘Right to Review’. However, as per F1.com, their appeal was rejected as they did not provide any new relevant element. In their statement, FIA said:
“In relation to relevance, McLaren appears to submit that the Stewards finding that “Car 4 had overtaken Car 1 before the apex (and therefore that Car 1 was the overtaking car) and that this asserted error is itself, a new element. This is unsustainable. A petition for review is made in order to correct an error (of fact or law) in a decision.”
“Any new element must demonstrate that error. The error that must be shown to exist, cannot itself be the element referred to in Article 14. In this case, the concept that the written decision was the significant and relevant new element, or that an error in the decision was a new element, is not sustainable and is, therefore rejected.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claimed that he was not confident of the decision being overturned even after filing the appeal and shifted his focus to the race weekend in Mexico.
The McLaren team boss analyzes their performance after Friday
Andrea Stella was optimistic about their chances during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend as they had a smooth FP1 and FP2 and tested their new parts. Speaking with the team’s official website, the Italian reflected:
“We tested all of the items we had planned, including the tire test in FP2, and aerodynamic components in FP1, and then Lando at the end had enough time to do a short Medium tire run. It’s been a decent day, we seem to be there or thereabouts in terms of performance.”
The Woking-based team is currently 40 points ahead of Red Bull and 48 points ahead of Ferrari in their battle for the Constructor’s Championship with five races and three Sprints remaining.
