Aron hit with double penalty for team’s illegal DRS modification, Hadjar gains a point · RaceFans

Former Formula 2 championship contender Paul Aron has been penalised twice after the stewards ruled his team made a “deliberate” change to his car’s DRS which made it illegal.

The Hitech driver’s title chances ended when he finished third in the sprint race at Yas Marina today. However the stewards disqualified him from the results of the race after finding his DRS did not conform to the technical regulations.

The stewards handed Aron a further penalty for tomorrow’s feature race, ordering him to start from the back of the grid, “in view of the seriousness and nature of the offence.”

Inspection of Aron’s DRS revealed it had been modified in order to allow to it open wider than usual, potentially increasing its performance. The stewards ruled the change could only have been made deliberately.

“The DRS actuator on car 17 [Aron] was found to have been modified to extend the length of the piston by one millimetre, allowing a wider opening of the DRS wing,” the stewards ruled. “Article 1.5.2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship Technical Regulations states that no parts may be modified in any way whatsoever once supplied to the competitor, except where specifically permitted.

“During the hearing, the team representative did not deny that the car was non- compliant. He stated that there was a problem with the DRS actuator during qualifying and the team therefore changed it to a different one from their spare parts. The team representative also claimed not to know why this DRS actuator was modified.

“The technical delegate pointed out that it is normal procedure for a team, whenever a performance part is changed, to check that the part is up to specification. The team representative claimed that this was not done in this case, but does not know why this was not done.

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“The standard penalty for a technical infringement is disqualification. In this case, however, there is a strong presumption that the team was aware of the non-conformity of the part (or at least should have been, if they had exercised due diligence).

Isack Hadjar, Campos, Formula 2, Yas Marina, 2024 — Hadjar gains a point and a place on the grid for the finale

As a result of Aron’s sprint race penalty, Isack Hadjar moves up one place to fifth and gains an extra point. His deficit to championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto is therefore reduced to four-and-a-half points. Ferrari junior driver Dino Beganovic also gains a podium in third in just his third F2 start.

However the stewards ruled a further sanction was deserved in this case. “As such an offence can only be committed by a deliberate act to modify the part in question, the stewards consider that an additional penalty to the disqualification of car 17 from race one is appropriate,” they explained. “Article 12.4.6 of the FIA International Sporting Code gives the stewards the authority to impose an additional penalty.

“In view of the seriousness and nature of the offence, the stewards consider it appropriate that in addition to the disqualification from race one, car 17 should start from the pit lane for race two.”

This penalty also benefits Hadjar, as it moves him up one place on the grid for tomorrow’s race to third, immediately behind Bortoleto.