Ava Dobson receives penalties for all three Austin races
The American Express driver was given three-place grid drops after stewards ruled she failed to slow for a yellow flag in Practice.
Ava Dobson has been handed a three-place grid penalty for each of the three F1 Academy races in Austin. The ruling followed an incident during Practice in which she did not slow sufficiently for a single yellow flag at Sector 19.
According to F1 Academy, Dobson was set to line up in P17 for the Opening Race, P18 for the Reverse Grid Race and P18 for the Feature Race after the penalties.
Stewards reviewed the Sector 19 incident
The yellow flags were displayed for a car that had spun at the exit of Turn 19. Dobson told the stewards she had already committed to the corner and tried to lift off the throttle in response.
After hearing from Dobson and her Hitech team and reviewing the available data, the stewards found no noticeable reduction in speed as she approached or passed through the sector. They observed a brief reduction in mid-corner throttle application but determined that it had not reduced the car’s speed enough to meet the yellow-flag requirements.
Three-place drops across all race sessions
The stewards applied the standard three-place grid penalty to each race: the Opening Race, Reverse Grid Race and Feature Race. The positions reported by F1 Academy reflect the penalties, not race results.
Newsroom
This report concerns the stewards’ penalty decision; it does not report results from the Austin races.
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Sources
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F1 Academy
Official source · 22/10/2026 00:00
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