The sporting director of Alpine, Steve Nielsen, explained the team's error that led to a penalty for Argentine Franco Colapinto before the start of the Australian Grand Prix and assured that the team will review the procedure to prevent the situation from recurring. The driver from Pilar finished fourteenth (14th) in the race at Albert Park after serving a penalty that compromised his strategy from the start. The incident occurred on the Albert Park circuit's grid when Colapinto was preparing for the formation lap before the official race start, according to Noticias Argentinas news agency. At that moment, a mechanic pushed the car back a few centimeters, although the regulations prohibit any team intervention on the car in the 15 seconds leading up to the formation lap, so the stewards applied a stop-and-go penalty that relegated him to last place. Nielsen admitted the infringement and stated it was an internal failure: 'Yes, there is a rule. It's not new, it's a long-standing rule that states you cannot work on the car after the 15 seconds before the formation lap begins,' he said in a press interview. He then added: 'We infringed that rule for, I don't know, a couple of seconds, I think.'
