Pit start for Grosjean after parc fermé breach

Romain Grosjean will start from the pits after Haas were found guilty of breaching Formula 1 parc fermé regulations.

Grosjean had failed to set a time in qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix, the team blaming an ERS water pump problem for this.

As a result, the team breached parc fermé regulations to fix the problem, and the FIA race stewards have instructed the team to start Grosjean from the pitlane.

The FIA decision read: "Car 8 took part in Q1 by exiting the pit lane and therefore was under Parc fermé conditions from that point in time as specified in Art. 34.2 of the 2020 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

As reported by the Technical Delegate and confirmed by the team manager during the hearing, the team did not stop working on the car 3 hours 30 minutes after the end of Qualifying (11 July 2020, 20:16 hrs), but instead continued to work on the car until 23:20 hrs on 11 July 2020, which is not in compliance with Art. 34.4 of the 2020 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

"The work carried out during this time was not under supervision of a scrutineer, which is a breach of Art. 34.7 of the 2020 Formula One Sporting Regulations."

F1 regulations allow for the possibility of a driver to be disqualified from a grand prix event for breaching parc fermé regulations, the window for working on the cars closing three hours and 30 minutes after the close of qualifying, but the stewards have shown leniency on this occasion.

To prevent other teams from breaching protocol in the instance of a poor qualifying, the stewards warned: "In this connection is it pointed out that the penalty applied is not to be seen as a precedent for future infringements of the regulations set out in Art. 36 of the 2020 Formula One Sporting Regulations."

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