Fernando Alonso has fallen foul of the Formula 1 stewards on a couple of occasions already this season. But he hasn’t taken the punishments lying down.
At the Australian Grand Prix in March, Alonso received a 20-second penalty for an incident with George Russell on the penultimate lap. He was adjudged to have driven unnecessarily slowly before Russell lost control of his car and crashed out.
Aston Martin subsequently issued a statement on their social media channels questioning the call. It dropped him from sixth to eighth.
Then, in the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix last month, Alonso was battling to fend off compatriot Carlos Sainz for the final podium spot. He made contact with the Ferrari driver, sustaining race-ending damage.
The stewards decided he’d caused a collision, and while he’d already failed to score any points, he earned three penalty points. A driver receives a one-race ban if they accumulate 12 over the course of a year.
Aston Martin appealed that verdict ahead of the following race in Miami. Will Buxton praised them for doing ‘God’s work’ and holding the FIA to account.
Fernando Alonso praises Sergio Perez after ‘weird’ stewards verdict
Alonso complained ahead of the Sprint in Miami that he wouldn’t be allowed to properly fight other drivers. In that sense, the race ‘meant nothing’.
The two-time world champion was asked about the matter once again as he conducted his media duties ahead of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna GP. He urged the FIA to ‘keep it much simpler’ in their officiating.
And he also praised Red Bull driver Sergio Perez for questioning the penalties handed out in modern F1. He was glad to know he wasn’t the ‘only one’ who held this opinion.
“We always try to fight hard without making contact with other drivers,” he told RacingNews365. “We have seen how fragile these cars can be, because the slightest damage immediately makes you a lot slower.
“The last thing we want is to make contact with someone different. Sometimes it is no different, but that is also part of motorsport.
“We have to keep it much simpler. But as I said before, everyone tries to develop and learn from mistakes.
“I was happy to read an article recently where Checo [Perez] and Logan [Sargeant] also said they thought today’s punishments were weird. So apparently I’m not the only one.”
How close is Fernando Alonso to a race ban?
Despite accumulating points in Australia and China, Alonso is still six away from the suspension threshold. He ranks fifth among the 20 drivers for total penalty points, one behind teammate Lance Stroll.
That’s not to say he doesn’t have to be careful, though. He must wait until 24 March next year before any of those points expire, and there are still 18 races to go in 2024.
The driver most at risk right now is, clearly, Kevin Magnussen. The Dane managed to double his tally in a messy Miami weekend, and is now on the brink.
Some F1 figures thought Magnussen deserved a suspension for his on-truck conduct in Florida alone. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has called for changes to the rules to prevent the kind of impeding he’s used to help his teammate Nico Hulkenberg at two events this season.
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