Since the death of Charlie Whiting and the departure of his successor as F1 race director, the FIA’s race control presents as though its in meltdown. The two rotating race directors’ appointed for 2022 came in for repeated criticism from the drivers and teams for their lack of consistency in decision making.

Currently, how the FIA plans to man the F1 race director role this season is ambiguous, though it appears Niels Wittich will continue indefinitely while leading a programme bringing on the next generation of officials.The opening weekend of the F1 season in Bahrain passed off with little to say about the management of the race or indeed the stewards’ decisions. Ocon got three in race penalties which were all connected though the paddock consensus was he deserved each of them.

 

 

Round two of the Formula One calendar was not so smooth for the F1 FIA officials.

Fernando Alonso appeared to commit a similar offence to Esteban Ocon though the stewards failed to note this or register an investigation was impending through the normal channels.

Wolff admits B-Spec car not possible in 2023

 

 

Stewards only investigate after the race

They initiated an investigation into the pit stop where Alonso served his ‘out of the box on the grid’ 5 second penalty some 13 minutes after the chequered flag.

12 minutes later they decided Fernando’s Jackman had touched the car during the 5 second penalty wait time – and awarded a 10 second post race penalty. This promoted George Russell to P3 though by then the podium interviews pictures and presentations had been completed with Alonso in P3.

There was immediate criticism from social media of the stewards behaviour. The consensus was that had the stewards awarded Fernando the penalty with the 32 laps remaining after his pit stop, he would have had time to extend his lead beyond the time penalty awarded and retain P3.

 

 

Aston Martin successfully appeal

This became somewhat academic after the team successfully appealed demonstrating other instances previously where a jack has touched the car and no penalty was awarded.

Fernando was reinstated by the stewards who admitted there was some ambiguity of precedent and the matter would be fully reviewed before the Australian GP.

Prior to the Aston Martin appeal being accepted, Toto Wolff was informed his driver George Russell had been promoted to third place due to Alonso’s jack man touching the car.

Lights out and away we go!!! 😲

How about that start from @alo_oficial?#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/xDhxdrec31

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 21, 2023

 

 

Wolff believes Alonso penalty harsh

“First of all,” Wolff told Channel 4, “the penalty was super harsh because from the pure driving performance Fernando and Aston Martin deserved to be on the podium.

“We have to look at those regulations and see is there is anything we can tweak because it didn’t affect his race.

Toto’s ambiguity due to his improper English here means we can only guess as to his intentions. In all likelihood Wolff is suggesting the regulations regarding the ‘touching’ of the car should be reconsidered not to be a penalty.

However, more controversial and with somewhat of a chip on his shoulder Wolff continues:

 

 

Toto drags up decisions from 2021

“I’d rather have the FIA come to the right decisions than be too quick and obviously fall into something that’s wrong.

“We’ve been victims of that in 2021 where everything was down to the entertainment for a quick decision and it robbed the greatest driver of the championships.

Having made a sensible suggestion about dropping the ‘touching the car’ rule which leads to a penalty, Toto merely uses the example to once again bemoan the decision of race control back in the season finale of 2021.

Once again, TJ13 suggests Mercedes could always have switched Lewis to new tyres back in Abu Dhabi and it would have been he who then wet on to win the race and a record 8th title.

Most sports don’t allow for decisions to be made over an hour after the incident occurs and so Wolff’s observations are trite and the stewards should be getting on top of these issue at the time they occur.

READ MORE: Mercedes fake U-Turn

Did other teams influence the Fernando Alonso podium fiasco?

Watch the Sky Sports F1 Podcast on our YouTube channel 👇

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 22, 2023