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Haas is protesting the result of Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
The Melbourne race ended in complete disorder after a late red flag – ironically for Kevin Magnussen’s Haas – set up a full standing restart with two laps remaining.
That restart was a mess with multiple incidents that promoted Magnussen’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, already in the points, to fourth.
The race was immediately red flagged again and with not enough laps remaining to complete another full standing restart, it would end with a rolling restart behind the safety car – meaning no more racing.
However, for that restart, the FIA set the order based on the starting grid for the previous standing restart, minus the cars that had been wiped out in the various accidents.
This is presumably because the starting order was considered the only confirmed order/classification that could be used – however, last year’s British GP set a precedent that the Safety Car 2 line should be used if all cars have passed it.
In Melbourne, the SC2 line is just before Turn 1. So all drivers passed it and therefore Haas argued the SC2 line should have been used as the order.
This would not promote Hulkenberg to fourth because the chaos occurred after Turn 1, but it is significant because Hulkenberg appears to have eked fractionally ahead of Lando Norris by the SC2 line.
Therefore, it has the potential to amend the order that should have bee used. And because there were no racing laps left, the order of the final restart determined the race classification.
The team was summoned to the stewards at 19:30 local time.
