FIA has been in the news a lot recently, and not for a reason they’d be proud of. First, the investigation and accusations against Susie Wolff for colluding interests with Toto Wolff, followed by rejecting Andretti’s appeal to join F1. And now the stewarding in the races during the first three races has been questionable. One of these was the penalty awarded to Fernando Alonso in Australia. And now Sergio Perez unleashed a rant on the FIA for the same.
Do you recall the penalties given to Kevin Magnussen during the Saudi Arabian GP? The 10-second penalty for leaving the track did seem a little harsh. But later, the penalty for Fernando Alonso after the Australian GP was for lifting off too early and causing George Russell to crash. However, the FIA report suggested that the consequence, i.e., the crash, wasn’t considered while giving the penalty.
Yet Alonso was awarded a drive-through penalty, meaning 20 seconds were added to his race time. The penalty does seem a little harsh, and the F1 community is divided on whether it is too harsh or not. Sergio Perez is of the opinion that the penalty was indeed a little too harsh and went on a ballistic rant against the FIA, suggesting that the penalties given by the FIA have not been consistent.
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Talking about the penalty given to Alonso, Sergio Perez, as per Autosport, said, “My take is it [the penalty] was definitely a bit too much over the limit. I’d say a bit unnecessary to do so. But 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 examples for the same, he added “For example in Jeddah there was a block of [Valtteri] Bottas in Q1 at 300 km/h with two cars – [Oliver] Bearman and [Alex] Albon. No penalty. I block [Nico] Hulkenberg, he lost half a tenth – he goes faster on the lap after, and I get three places. So I 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.”
Fernando Alonso himself took a slight dig at the FIA as he posted a race post on his Instagram, talking about the penalty. Let’s see what the Spaniard has to say.
Fernando Alonso’s jab at the FIA regarding the Australian GP penalty
Alonso has been racing in Formula 1 for over 2 decades now and is often known as the wild old fox for his tactics and clever thinking. Many believe that what Alonso did in Australia was just one of Alonso’s wild tactics, to make sure he compromised on the entry for a better exit. Nonetheless, Alonso isn’t one to let things go easily, and he took to Instagram to express his annoyance at the FIA’s decision to award him a penalty.
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View this post on Instagram
Fernando Alonso’s Instagram post caption read, “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.”
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“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,” he further added.
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