Haas break paddock curfew as Nico Hulkenberg’s problems continue at Dutch GP

Members of the Haas F1 team were within the confines of the paddock overnight at Zandvoort, the stewards have noted.

On Friday night of the Dutch Grand Prix, personnel at the Haas squad were in the paddock during the hours an operational curfew was in place.

Haas breached F1 curfew for first time in 2024

The rules allow for each team to breach the curfew rules on two separate occasions over a season, and Haas is the latest squad to have had personnel related to the operation of their cars within the paddock confines.

An operational curfew comes into effect 14 and a half hours before FP3, which started at 21:00 local time on Friday night, with these personnel not permitted to enter the paddock again before 08:30 local time on Saturday.

However, Haas did have team personnel related to the car’s operations in the paddock during these hours. The paddock breach was related to a car hydraulic leak and had nothing to do with the off-track drama surrounding the squad over the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.

The stewards have noted the incident as the first exception made and, as a result, no action will be taken.

On Friday, Nico Hulkenberg struggled to slow down his car throughout the two practice sessions, with several offs into the gravel, before bringing out the red flags in the second practice as he spun off at Turn 1 and came to rest against the barriers.

His issues continued on Saturday morning as Hulkenberg struggled to slow his car down. Just minutes into the third practice session, Hulkenberg slid off into the barriers and damaged his front wing, but was able to extricate himself and continue back to the pits.

This has triggered a summons from the stewards, for an alleged breach of Article 26.10 of the Sporting Regulations, related to continuing on track with bodywork damage.

Haas’ curfew breach means it’s the fifth team to use up an exception this year. Mercedes used one up at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Williams had one in Australia, Aston Martin had its first at the Japanese Grand Prix, and Alpine had its first at the Chinese Grand Prix.

A curfew exemption was also granted to Aston Martin and Ferrari in Miami as Aston Martin sought a right to review Fernando Alonso’s clash with Carlos Sainz in China.

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Uralkali arbitration ruling seeking payment of $12 million

Haas’ paddock breach comes on a weekend of stress for the American squad, as former title sponsor Uralkali is threatening to seize the team’s equipment over an ongoing dispute.

Uralkali, a Russian fertiliser company which was chaired by Nikita Mazepin’s father Dmitry, is seeking to recoup the €12 million they paid to Haas shortly before the outbreak of the Russia/Ukraine war and Haas’ termination of the sponsorship contract.

This termination has led to an ongoing dispute as Uralkali claimed they were owed the money already paid to Haas. In June, a Swiss court of arbitration ruled in favour of Uralkali, but it claims no money has yet been received from Haas.

This payment is made more difficult by economic sanctions placed on Russian companies and individuals by the US, EU, and UK authorities, but team boss Ayao Komatsu said on Friday the team has every intention of paying the sum.

“So obviously arbitration ruling was made and then we accepted it,” We’re not disputing it whatsoever. And then it’s a complicated process to transfer the funds across. And then we’re working on it and it’s been taking longer than I would like. But yeah, we are fully focused on making it across as soon as possible.”

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