“FIA, YOU’RE A SHAME” F1 Fans furious with Fernando Alonso’s 30-second post-race penalty
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Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso and Alpine have ultimately had a weekend to forget. The Spaniard started P14 and had made his way up to P8 when a terrible shunt on the back straight with Lance Stroll threw a spanner into the works. Stroll was out, and Alonso had damage as well. It was once again recovery mode for him.
Alonso eventually made his way up to P7, which was an absolutely amazing result considering the circumstances. But it won’t stand. Haas submitted a protest to the FIA because the Spaniard, pleading that the Alpine driver should have been shown a black-and-orange flag. While overtaking Magnussen, his right-side mirror had fallen off.
That protest has been deemed valid, and now, Fernando Alonso has been given a 30-second post-race penalty. This sends him from P7 down to P15, while his teammate Esteban Ocon will be upgraded from P11 to P10. This means the French team scored a single point this weekend. To say the decision has not gone down well would be an understatement.
Fans unhappy with how Fernando Alonso was penalized post-race
Haas’ protest against Alonso running with a damaged car is very valid, as multiple times this season, Kevin Magnussen has been shown the black-and-orange flag and forced to dive into the pits. Often this came on the first lap, even from ‘minor’ damage, and it mostly involved bits of the front wing. So, to see Fernando Alonso not receive any penalty at all would have not gone down well with the team.
The official decision is that Fernando Alonso receives a 10-second stop-go penalty, but this is converted to 30 seconds, as it is post-race. This means fans are now furious with the FIA, with many saying that the penalty should have been given during the race, not hours after it. Spanish fans are especially aggrieved. (Full penalty results)
At the start, George Russell locked up, and made contact with pole-sitter Carlos Sainz, sending the Spaniard into a spin, and effectively ending his race as he went to P20, and then had to retire due to a water leak. Fans protest how the Briton was only given a 5-second penalty for this. The incident with Lance Stroll was also cited, for which the Canadian received a 3-place grid penalty for next race.
Fernando Alonso’s fortune has not been the best this season. Earlier this season in Austria, the Spaniard qualified 8th for the sprint, but could not start the sprint due to an electric issue, which meant he would start from the back of the grid in the race. Alonso pitted while he was running sixth, but the next lap, he had to dive into the pits again due to ‘vibrations’, eventually finishing P10.
The race result means that McLaren are now only 6 points behind Alpine in the fight for P4. The French team must keep everything in order, as they mostly seem to have the better car, and to finish P5, after everything that has happened with Oscar Piastri would be insult to injury.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)