Force India have been denied an appeal against breaking the curfew rules at the Australian Grand Prix by the race stewards.
The team was found to have broken the curfew, which has been extended by an hour this year, when one of its engineers arrived at the circuit an hour early on Friday. The stewards imposed no sanction on Force India but in accordance with the rules noted the team had used “the first of the two individual exceptions permitted”.
A request by Force India to have the decision overturned was denied on Saturday.
“The circumstances were that the engineer entered the paddock at 08:30, one hour before the expiry of the restricted period,” noted the stewards. “Although he did not do any work whilst in the paddock the stewards find his actions breached the article”.
“The stewards decline to exercise any authority to providing any dispensation. In declining to remove any penalty the stewards took into account the differing circumstances in previous instances.”
In 2011 Red Bull had one of its curfew exemptions returned after an employee of sponsor Infiniti was originally deemed to have broken the curfew by arriving at the paddock early. The same year Toro Rosso was judged to have broken the curfew when team principal Franz Tost arrived early at the Singapore paddock.
Force India therefore has one remaining curfew exemption available for the remainder of the championship.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th March 2016, 14:14
Poor dude xD !
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
19th March 2016, 14:42
So he was expected to sit on the floor outside the gate for an hour like a lemon?
Rules for rules sake.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
19th March 2016, 17:55
@eurobrun No.
BJ (@beejis60)
19th March 2016, 16:48
What’s the penalty if you go over your curfew allotments? Grid penalty?
Biggsy
19th March 2016, 17:13
This is extremely stupid. With all the timezones and travels, punishing someone for accidentally arriving an hour earlier to the paddock, without doing any work, is absurd.
Paul Kirk
19th March 2016, 23:04
Hell’s teeth! ! What a crazy outfit this F1 is! They’re treating everyone like school children! If a team needs to work on their car, let em do it, we want em on the track racing! And they need time to check that everything’s ok on the car, you wouldn’t want an oil leak or something not quite finished/tightened on Sunday, would you?
This F1 is serious BUSINESS, not Junior Restricted Karting.
PK.