Alfa Romeo’s F1 team has the right to review Imola’s penalty

Raikkonen lost his ninth place in Imola two weeks ago after the FIA ​​ruled that he had broken the rules by taking the red flag restart off the track.

On the lap before the restart, Raikkonen had turned his Alfa Romeo at Turn 3 before he started again. The F1 rules state that drivers can return to their original position as long as this is done in front of the first safety car line.

Faced with uncertainty as to whether he would have to follow safety car procedures prohibiting such a recovery, Raikkonen did not move back up and instead made the restart on the track.

Alfa Romeo found the penalty unfair and requested a right to review the case based on new evidence under the International Sports Code.

Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo Racing C41

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

After a hearing with the stewards in Portugal on Friday evening, it was agreed that new items would need to be checked.

While the FIA ​​rejected documents related to the F1 Sporting Working Group, the F1 Commission and the Race Director noted that if there was any doubt that the competitor should get the benefit of the doubt, they would accept documents indicating that there had been no previous example of such a penalty in F1.

Alfa Romeo found this relevant as the stewards’ decision indicated that the rules were being “consistently applied”.

In its statement for the continuation of the review, the FIA ​​stated that its interpretation was based on previous examples of crime from F3 and F2, but acknowledged that there had been no such red flag violation on occasion.

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The FIA ​​said: “Following the decision and during this present hearing, the stewards determined that the specific cases they mentioned did not follow a red flag.

“While this was just one element among many considered by the stewards, this information was not available to the competitor at the time of the original decision and was part of the stewards’ discussion and is therefore considered significant and relevant.”

The stewards will video-conference with Alfa Romeo on Sunday morning in Portugal for a full hearing on the matter.