Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
New McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne has been disqualified from Formula 3 qualifying at Imola, where he placed fifth, because of a technical infringement.
The decision concerned the anti-roll bar links fitted to Dunne’s MP Motorsport car, with the parts intended for the rear incorrectly being used as part of the front assembly.
After the team was summoned to see the stewards, an MP representative “explained that the code on the part is different from the one used in the spare part catalogue” and that therefore “it was not possible for the team to check if the part was the correct one to assemble at the front of the car.”
MP also stated their belief that “they did not obtain a performance gain” from using the incorrect part.
In response, the F3 technical director explained that the championship uses its own system different to the Dallara code displayed on the part, “due to the complexity of Dallara’s numbering system” and that this “is shared with the teams in the spare parts catalogue”.
They added that teams “can always check with the spare parts supplier or with the F3 technical team before mounting the part in the car”.
Following his disqualification, Dunne is permitted to start both races at Imola from the back of the grid, with everybody that finished behind him being moved up in the classification.
It means Dunne’s team-mate Kacper Sztuka is now set to start on reversed-grid pole position for Saturday’s sprint race.
Fifth had been Dunne’s best qualifying result so far in the F3 championship, and came after he was announced on Thursday morning as part of McLaren’s driver development programme.