The FIA is set to introduce a tighter timeframe to the right of review process, impacting both Formula 1 and wider motorsport.
Currently, teams can submit a right of review within 14 days after an event, but the FIA plans to slash this to just four days for 2024, pending approval at the Annual General Assembly in December.
The four-day (96 hours) limit may be extended to 120 hours in exceptional circumstances.
The FIA will also incorporate a fee in the new procedure of €6000, which will be refunded in the event that the right to review is upheld by stewards.
The new changes will force F1 teams to act quickly in collating evidence before submitting a right to review.
In 2023, Aston Martin is the only team successful in utilising a right to review to overturn a decision, reinstating Fernando Alonso’s podium result in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ferrari and McLaren lodged unsuccessful bids in Australia and Canada respectively, as did Haas as recently as last week.
Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Haas VF-23.
21.10.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, United States Grand Prix, Austin, Texas, USA, Sprint Day.
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Haas sought to overturn the result from the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where it deemed several teams to have gone unpunished from track limits violations.
The team’s motion to lodge a review came on November 5, utilising the full 14-day period currently permitted by the FIA to bring forth such a case.
The hearing came to pass last week, starting Wednesday and concluding Thursday, with Haas’ appeal rejected on the grounds that there was “no significant and relevant new element that was unavailable to Haas at the time of the Decision,” said the FIA.
With the matter taking approximately two and a half weeks to conclude, the FIA’s motion to shorten the process will drastically cut the time to make stewarding decisions and therefore results, final.
Further changes to the process will seek to wipe out any advantage teams could seek to gain under the current system.
In the present moment, a notice of intention to appeal can put a stopper on penalties, such as grid penalties being applied.
In that case, a driver could race without a suspended grid penalty being applied and then have his team withdraw its appeal and remain relatively unpunished.
The FIA will now seek to stamp out this loophole, with teams being liable to a penalty if deemed to have gained an advantage from lodging an appeal, successful or otherwise.
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