Penalty cancelled in F3 after FIA asks stewards to review decision · RaceFans

The FIA has taken the unusual step of petitioning its stewards to review a decision taken during a support race at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Formula 3 stewards conducted a review and decided to retract an earlier decision and cancel the accompanying penalty. A 10-second time penalty and two penalty points issued to Alessandro Giusti were overturned.

The confusion began when the three-strong F3 stewarding panel ruled Giusti, who was competing in his first race in the series, overtook his rival Ugo Ugochukwu before the control line when the race was restarting following a Safety Car period.

Over three hours after the penalty was issued, the stewards announced the FIA had asked them to review the decision. This was done under the same ‘Right of Review’ process which is available to teams, including those in F1, though the FIA “waived their right to a hearing,” the stewards noted.

In a written submission to the stewards, the FIA pointed out Giusti in fact passed Ugochukwu shortly before the Safety Car period began, not while it was ending. Giusti subsequently returned the position to Ugochukwu, believing he had taken it incorrectly.

The stewards concluded the FIA’s submission fulfilled the four tests which are applied to Right of Review requests. These are the discovery of a “new element” which is relevant, significant and unavailable at the time the decision was taken.

“The ‘new element’ being considered is the clarification of the precise moment during the Safety Car period at which the video evidence should be evaluated,” the stewards noted. “The stewards determine that a new element exists in that the initial referral from Race Control was understood to have occurred during the restart, not at the commencement of the Safety Car period, which is a completely different and therefore ‘new’ time.

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“The request to review the incident as of the beginning of the Safety Car period is relevant because it goes to the very heart of the matter.

“The request to review the incident from a different point in time within the Safety Car period is significant because it completely changes the framework within which the alleged incident is to be evaluated.

“The fact that the stewards evaluated the incident at the incorrect time within the Safety Car period is clear evidence that proper and correct communication regarding the precise time of the alleged infringement had not occurred between the stewards and Race Control at the time of the decision concerned. The stewards determine that the proper scope of the stewards’ inquiry was not, in fact, available at the time of the original decision and that such unavailability is the ultimate cause of the need for this right of review.”

The stewards issued a revised decision, correcting their earlier statement. “While the driver overtook behind the Safety Car, the position was promptly given back,” they noted. “Under the penalty guidelines no penalty is appropriate.”