Haas F1’s protest dismissed by stewards at 2023 Australian GP
Stewards have dismissed a protest by the Haas Formula One team against the provisional results of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix.
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh in Melbourne, though he was fourth when the race was stopped by a red flag for the third and final time. He was behind Carlos Sainz in P3, who was later handed a five-second penalty for his role in a collision with Fernando Alonso.
Sainz's time penalty coupled with Hulkenberg would have seen the German finish on the podium for only the second time in his career.
However, when the race resumed, the FIA decided to reshuffle the pack to an order resembling the grid for the standing restart. The official reason for this was stated that the race was stopped before the leader (Max Verstappen) reached the first sector timing line.
After the chequered flag fell, it was confirmed that Haas lodged a protest and would attend a hearing with the stewards to air their views. Several hours later, stewards ruled that the race director had acted appropriately and dismissed their protest.
The document confirming the result of the protest read:
"Art. 57.3 required that a restart grid order be organized in accordance with order at the: “last point at which it was possible to determine the position of all cars. This determination needed to be done in the context of a timed race event and therefore the decision of Race Control and the Race Director needed to be made promptly; with the exercise of appropriate discretion and by using the most appropriate information available to them at the time.
It continued:
"In the circumstances, based on what we heard from the FIA representatives and from Haas, we considered that this was in fact done appropriately by the Race Director in this instance and therefore dismiss the protest."
This confirms Hulkenberg's seventh-place finish at Albert Park, a result that lifted Haas to seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.
Nico Hulkenberg now holds record for second-most F1 races (183) started without a win
At the 2023 Australian GP, Nico Hulkenberg took the unwanted record as the driver to have started the second-most F1 races without a win. He overtook German driver Nick Heidfeld, who drove for Prost, Sauber, Jordan, Williams, BMW Sauber and Renault between 2000 and 2011.
Hulkenberg came close to a win several times in his career, most notably in Brazil. In 2010, driving for Williams-Cosworth, he took pole at Interlagos before finishing P8. In 2012, as a Force India driver, he led the race for a number of laps before a collision with Lewis Hamilton on Lap 54 led to him finishing P5.
Andrea de Cesaris is the only driver who has started more races than Hulkenberg (208) races without registering a win. The Italian, who drove for Alfa Romeo, McLaren, Ligier, Minardi, Brabham, Rial, Dallara, Jordan, Tyrrell and Sauber, was active from 1980 to 1994. His best result in F1 was a P2 finish at the 1983 German GP and the 1983 South African GP.