How Alpine used Oxford dictionary to get Fernando Alonso’s P7 from USGP back

Alpine used the Oxford Dictionary to make the FIA reinstate Fernando Alonso’s seventh position in Austin despite Haas’ appeal. 

Alonso received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty at the United States GP because of the Haas F1 team’s protest. After the race, it was converted into a 30-second penalty which demoted Alonso out of the top 10, despite his seventh-place finish.

Alpine, however, was not happy and immediately protested against this decision. The French outfit’s main argument was based on the fact that Haas lodged their complaint after the deadline. All teams are given 30 minutes to submit their complaints, and the Kannapolis-based team failed to do so.

Haas initially defended this by stating that the FIA told them they had an hour which made it ‘impossible’ for them to adhere to the deadline. Meanwhile, Alpine had a very start trick up their sleeve to get them to reverse their decision of penalizing Alonso.

Alpine’s engineer Alan Permane insisted that under no circumstances could Haas have missed the 30-minute mark.

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Alpine explains the meaning of ‘impossible’ to get P7 back for Fernando Alonso

Permane reminded FIA of the rules regarding submitting a complaint against a driver or team after an F1 race. He submitted a document that stated: “There is no ‘leeway’ available to the stewards to extend the 30-minute deadline. Unless it is ‘impossible’ for a party to lodge the protest within the deadline period.”

Permane then took the help of the Oxford Dictionary to explain what the word impossible exactly meant. According to the dictionary, impossible describes ‘something that cannot happen or be achieved. The British engineer was adamant in his report that they could submit the complaint by then.

This technicality allowed Alpine to help Alonso get his position back. The governing body of F1 agrees to Alpine’s say in the matter. They released a statement on Friday which said: “By definition, this fact alone means that it was not “impossible” to lodge the protest within 30 minutes, and therefore the original protest should not have been admitted.”

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Will Alonso overtake Esteban Ocon in the standings?

Fernando Alonso has had a very good year in terms of performance but was very unlucky throughout. The Spaniard’s P7 in the USA means that he is now P9 in the Drivers’ Championship standings. He is 14 points behind teammate Esteban Ocon.

Ocon, himself is having a great season and unless the Frenchman has a disastrous end to the campaign, it seems like Alonso will be beaten by his young teammate in his last year with the team.