Force India: Clear Haas broke regulations at Monza

Force India technical chief Andrew Green believes it is “absolutely” clear Haas broke the Formula 1 regulations on Romain Grosjean’s car in the Italian Grand Prix despite the team’s push to appeal his exclusion.

Grosjean finished sixth at Monza two weeks ago, only to be disqualified after the floor on his Haas VF-18 car was found to have breached a technical directive issued by the FIA following a protest by Renault.

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner said there was a 50-50 chance of winning the case and having Grosjean’s result reinstated. He also claimed there was a gentleman’s agreement between teams not to issue a protest after the race which Renault had broken.

However, Green said it was “absolutely” cut and dry that Haas had breached the regulations when asked by Crash.net about the matter in Singapore.

“There was a technical directive from the FIA, telling everybody, not just Haas, these are the regulations, and you need to abide by them by Monza. Plenty of time,” Green said.

“That’s a completely different scenario from thinking that someone’s illegal and then doing a sneaky on them at the end of a race, which tends not to happen. We tend to talk to the FIA, the FIA will then go and talk to the team, and they’ll sort it out.

“But when you get a directive from the FIA, you follow it, otherwise you end up being excluded. That’s what’s happened.

“It’s not a gentleman’s agreement. It’s what the regulations are there for.”

Haas has confirmed it will appeal the ruling, with a hearing set to take place on November 1.