The FIA has been under scrutiny recently for the decisions made by the stewards regarding penalties, the most recent being the penalty handed over to Fernando Alonso in Australia. And now, after the incident during the Japanese GP qualifying between George Russell and Oscar Piastri in the pitlane, another decision has been made by the FIA. But this time, it’s a $5424 blow rather than a penalty. 

During the Qualifying session, amid the race to send the cars out at the best possible time, Mercedes, at the end of the pitlane, unsafely released George Russell into the path of Oscar Piastri, who had to take evasive actions to avoid a collision. As a result of that incident, which was noted by the Stewards, Mercedes has been handed over a $5424 fine.

FIA’s report read, “The driver of Car 81 stated that he had to take avoiding action by steering away from the approaching Car 63. Examination of the pit lane video shows that the mechanic of Car 63 who released the car did not look down to pit lane to see if it was clear…….it is still the responsibility of the team to release the car in a safe manner and good practice would dictate that prior to the car being released, the pit lanes (both fast and working) should be checked for approaching vehicles.”

It suggests that Piastri stated that he had to take avoiding action. When the incident actually happened on the track, Piastri went on the team radio and said, “That wasn’t very British of George Russell”, referring to the fact that it wasn’t polite as the Mercedes driver just jumped the gun in front of him.

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Many think that Mercedes got off too easy, and it was at least going to be a 3-place grid drop but Mercedes just got away with a fine. The consistency of FIA’s decision has been consistently questioned since the start of the season, and Checo Perez did the same after Alonso’s penalty from Australia.

Sergio Perez’s Jab at FIA regarding Fernando Alonso and George Russell’s Australian GP incident decision 

Fernando Alonso was given a drive-through penalty, i.e., 20 seconds added to his race time after his early braking caused George Russell to crash. Fernando Alonso himself took a dig at FIA suggesting how he’s been racing for over 20 years and was surprised by the decision of him giving him a penalty as all this is a part of racing. And now Sergio Perez came in support of Alonso and pointed out the inconsistencies in FIA’s decisions recently.

Sergio Perez said, “My biggest fear is that we might see this incident again this weekend or next weekend and probably nothing will happen. That’s my biggest fear because we’ve been struggling a lot to keep the consistency within the penalties.” Giving various examples of the same from this season, he added, “l think the biggest talking point should be consistency. If incidents like this are going to be penalized, they have to be penalized every single weekend. Because as a driver, it hurts a lot when you work your ass off and then you see this inconsistency.”

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“It Hurts a Lot When You Work Your A** Off”: Sergio Perez Goes on a Ballistic Rant Against FIA Amid Fernando Alonso’s Harsh Penalty

What should’ve been an apt penalty for Russell and Mercedes after the Japanese GP qualifying incident?