The Formula One circus has decamped at the iconic Suzuka race circuit but much of the talk on there media day was about certain goings on in Melbourne. Long after the chequered flag had fallen, the trophies presented and the champagne sprayed, the stewards decided to hand out one of their harshest penalties to Fernando Alonso for diving in a “potentially dangerous” fashion.

During the closing laps down under, George Russell was harrying Alonso’s Aston Martin as they battled for P6. Fernando driving defensively backed off into turn 6 to ensure Russell did not get a run on him before the largest of the DRS zones. The Mercedes driver appeared not to notice, closed quickly on the Aston Martin then career off the track and into the crash barrier.

 

 

 

Alonso penalty in Melbourne

There was no contact between the Mercedes and the Aston Martin but Russell when interviewed hinted he felt he had been ‘brake tested.’

As the drivers assembled on Thursday in Japan, each was canvassed for their opinion of the incident and the subsequent ‘drive through’ penalty handed down to Fernando. With the race over the penalty was converted to 20 seconds being added to Alonso’s time which dropped him two places down to eighth.

Daniel Ricciardo suggested he believed the severity of the penalty was due to the huge shunt George Russell suffered.

“It’s a strange one because the consequence was big. George had a massive crash because of his defensive strategy, so from that you’re like, ‘Okay, that was bad’. I don’t know how I feel about it because it’s something that’s not common.

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Ricciardo says consequences influenced the decision

“Now that he’s done it, I can understand kind of why he did it, but it’s probably something we don’t ever do or practice. Maybe the execution wasn’t so good. I think because of the consequences, you understand the penalty.”

Yet the directions to the F1 race stewards are clear and their decision should not be influenced by the effect of the incident on the ‘injured party’ driver.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc gave an interesting insight into the matter explaining the FIA and drivers have been working together to make time penalties fairer.

“My view is that it’s something we do as drivers, however, not to that extent. What Fernando did in Australia was a bit much and had to be penalised.

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Leclerc calls time penalties unfair

“However, I believe that there’s something that we need to look into in terms of the penalty. We’ve been working on time penalties for a long time, which is a bit wrong because you are a bit of a victim of your own luck in a way.

“If you’ve got a safety car, two laps to go, which could have been the case in that scenario, then you go from sixth to last. If you are in a position like Fernando, you only lose two places, so I think there’s something to look into and try to improve for the future.”

Eddie Jordan agrees with Leclerc and this week suggested the stewards should not change the race classification in future, but hand out grid drop penalties for the following race weekend.

Valtteri Bottas who was replaced at Mercedes by George Russell seemed perplexed by the whole affair and also accused the stewards of being influenced by the drama of Russell’s crash.

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Bottas “surprised”

“I was quite surprised about the penalty, to be honest. Yeah, it’s on the limit. It’s clear what he did, that he tried to kind of kill the momentum of George for the back stretch.

“I think if George would have not ended up in the wall, or going off the track, probably then there would have not been a penalty but it (the crash) made it look quite dramatic.

“I still feel the car ahead should always be allowed to choose the speed and the line. But it’s a fine line what you can do. I was quite surprised by that.”

As was to be expected Fernando’s team mate Lance Stroll hit out at the stewards and called their reasoning “a joke.”

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Stroll describes decision as a “joke”

“I thought it (the penalty) was ridiculous, to be honest. I don’t think he did anything stupid. He was just preparing the exit of the corner, and for me, it was ridiculous.

“To get a drive-through penalty for an incident that doesn’t even involve any contact between the cars or anything like that, I don’t really understand it. The penalty, in general, is kind of a joke.

“Where do you draw that line between driving unnecessarily slowly and being tactical? And it’s not like he (Alonso) braked and George ran into the back of him like. George did the corner and didn’t run into the back of him at all. Unfortunately, it lost him downforce and he had a moment, but that’s racing.”

Yet it was not only Alonso’s Aston Martin team mate who felt the F1 stewards had got it wrong, the McLaren drivers both slammed the stewards for making the wrong decision.

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“It shouldn’t have been a penalty”: Norris

“It shouldn’t be a penalty,” Lando Norris said dismissively. “What Fernando did was odd, so extreme. But I don’t think it’s even close to being regarded as a brake test. Did he break and downshift? I don’t know the exact things of it. But should it be a penalty in any way? No. George, in my opinion, should have seen it coming. He had time to see what was going on.

“I’m sure it’s always tougher being in that situation, but that kind of thing shouldn’t have been a penalty. I think it’s clear…. This was not a brake test.

“This was just trying to play very smart – Fernando being Fernando – and [George] kind of being caught out by it. But it was not aggressive. It was not like, one metre in front of a car stopping. It was like 100 metres ahead, slowing down and the approaching speed caught George off. But no way near should that be a penalty.”

Oscar Piastri too fund it strange that despite there being no contact between Alonso and Russell, a penalty was awarded.

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Piastri questions  lack of contact

“It was obviously quite different from how he had taken the corner beforehand. Giving a penalty for it potentially creates a very, very tricky precedent for everybody, giving a car a penalty for no contact.

“Quite frankly, it wasn’t a crash out of avoidance. I could understand if George was trying to avoid Fernando and had to swerve off the track, then, yes, understandable.

“But giving someone a penalty for causing dirty air. I’m sure a lot of qualifying sessions would go very differently if we started doing that, so I was a bit surprised by the penalty.”

However, there was one dissenting voice amongst the drivers who felt Alonso deserved the punishments handed down.

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Hulkenberg calls Alonso tactics ‘dirty’

“When I saw it all I wasn’t very impressed with Fernando’s tactics there to be honest,” Hulkenberg told assembled media in Japan. Melbourne, after all, it’s kind of a street circuit, it’s quite narrow there, we approach that corner with 260, 270 clicks [and] a blind exit.

“If, for whatever reason, the flag system or someone is late, and one of us would have T-boned George, the outcome and the way he feels might have also been quite different.

“Whilst that tactic is quite a common one in Formula 1, in that particular corner with that speed, with a blind exit, I think it’s the wrong corner to do it and produced quite a dangerous situation.”

Charles Leclerc’s observations are worthy of further consideration particularly when it comes to post race time penalties being applied. It does appear too random for the stewards just handing out time penalties without considering the impact, because had race control thrown a safety car for Russell’s accident in Melbourne, as a result of the field bunching up, Fernando would have been relegated to last place.

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