Long after the Formula One chequered flag dell in Australia, Fernando Alonso was to be issued with a penalty from the stewards chasing the classified race result. The Aston Martin driver was given a drive-through for “potentially dangerous” driving, which was converted into a 20-second penalty post-race.

The Melbourne stewards also decided to award the Spanish world champion driver with three penalty points on his super license, which will remain until 12 months today. Yet the big question was it worth the risk for Alonso and even further, does this jeopardise his opportunity to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for next season?

 

 

 

Russell caught out has big off

During the closing laps of the race in Melbourne, Fernando was left to defend from a charging George Russell as they battled to finish in sixth place. At the place where Max Verstappen became vulnerable from Carlos Sainz earlier in the race, Alonso decided to take the entry into turn six slower than previously. This was to give him the exact drive off the corner to defend from the Mercedes driver who would be getting DRS assistance all the way through to turn nine, where Carlos overtook Max.

George Russell was caught out by the manoeuvre, closed on Alonso at an alarming rate into the apex of turn six and was then caught out by the air wash from the Aston Martin and George and his W15 left the track at speed and hit the barrier causing the race to finish behind the virtual safety car.

The penalty issued by the stewards resulted in Fernando dropping two places to P8 and Yuki Tsunoda promoted to P7 with Lance Stroll classified P6. So the whole saga cost Aston Martin two points and with Russell failing to finished the race, 

Yet prior to the penalty, the Silverstone based team were ranked above Mercedes with their 6-7 finish but now the standings have been revised with the eight times consecutive world champions now a point ahead of Aston Martin.

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Johnny Herbert the driver steward

Had Russell overtaken Alonso, he would have scored the eight points on offer, even had Fernando ‘fairly’ held of his challenger then George would have six more points than he does following the decision and Lance Stroll would have two less points because he would have finished behind Russell with no incident.

So the result of the saga is that Mercedes have either six or eight points less following George Russell’s unfortunate end to the Grand Prix. Clearly this benefits Mercedes and could be the reason Fernando Alonso is not incensed by the late decision from the stewards.

Yet this didn’t stop Fernando having his say where he questions whether the stewards, which included former F1 racer Johnny Herbert, had come to a coherent final solution.

Russell had informed the stewards, who took over three hours to publish their final a somewhat defensive report, that Fernando’s driving had been “erratic” and caught him by surprise. The Mercedes driver claimed the sudden surprising closing speed with the loss of aerodynamics at the apex of the corner meant he lost control of the car and crashed out of the race.

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FIA says manoeuvre “unusual”

The stewards’ report said Alonso lifted off the accelerator just over 100m earlier than he ever had before into that corner during the race. The added: “He also braked very slightly at a point that he did not usually brake (although the amount of brake was so slight that it was not the main reason for his car slowing) and he downshifted at a point he never usually downshifted.

“He then upshifted again, and accelerated to the corner before lifting again to make the corner. Alonso explained that while his plan was to slow earlier, he got it slightly wrong and had to take extra steps to get back up to speed.

“Nonetheless, this manoeuvre created a considerable and unusual closing speed between the cars,” otherwise what is called a “brake test” and is considered an unacceptable tactic in racing, however the stewards conclude they do not have enough evidence to prove Alonso’s moves were intended to cause Russell problems, or whether as he stated he was simply trying to maximums his exit before the easiest overtaking part of the circuit.

It is questionable whether the stewards should be advising the best racers in the world on how to handle their cars and Fernando is clearly not responsible for dirty washing over the car behind him. In fact to time it perfectly to affect another car’s aerodynamics is almost impossible to orchestrate which is why the stewards decision leaves much to be desired.

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Best they have is “potentially dangerous”

“Should Alonso have the right to try a different approach to the corner? Yes. Should Alonso be responsible for dirty air, that ultimately caused the incident? No,” was a strange paragraph included in the report.

“However, did he choose to do something, with whatever intent, that was extraordinary, ie lifting, braking, downshifting and all the other elements of the manoeuvre over 100m earlier than previously, and much greater than was needed to simply slow earlier for the corner?

“Yes by his own account of the incident he did, and in the opinion of the stewards by doing these things, he drove in a manner that was at very least ‘potentially dangerous’ given the very high speed nature of that point of the track.”

What a load of tosh. Every motorsport ticket bought on admission to a track includes the words “Motor racing is dangerous”. Fernando in typical style had his say on social media: 

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Alonso says FIA overstepped the mark

“A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars. At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world we will never be even investigated.”

Alonso went on to cite his 20 years experience in some detail questioning the stewards interpretation of his earlier stop at turn 6 than previously in the race.

“In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola 2005/2006/ Brazil 2023, changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport. We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tires, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising.

Given the net gain the entire affair his given Aston Martin an advantage over Mercedes, Fernando concludes in gracious fashion.

“We have to accept it and think about Japan, to have more pace and fight for positions further up the field. Thank you, team! “

Verstappen faces penalty blow in Australia

 

 

 

Hamilton and Wolff disagreement down unde

Max Verstappen’s run of nine consecutive Formula One Grand Prix wins came to an abrupt end as his right rear brake caught fire. The RB20 was already in trouble when sitting on pole position, brake temperatures rising meant Verstappen was unable to make his usual first lap dash to break the gap of one second to his nearest pursuer.

Carlos Sainz was all over the back of the Red Bull car and when on lap two the rear right break caught Max out in turn 7, the Ferrari driver used his overspeed to ease past the world champion into turn nine… READ MORE