The weekend of the 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was an ordeal for Fernando Alonso, who had just scored points in the last five appointments. First it was floor damage to his Alpine that left him without a chance in qualifying on Friday, and then an electrical issue a few seconds before the start of Saturday’s sprint race caused him to start from the back of the grid on Sunday.
The man from Oviedo, showing off his skills in the Great Circus, came back to sixth place, although lengthening his stop a lot, and although he had all the ballots to go down due to his used tires, he could add a good handful of points.
However, a few laps from the end there was a devastating blow to his options, and that is that a virtual safety car due to the fire of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari opened the stop window for him. So Alpine called him into the pits to fit a new compound, and that’s when disaster struck.
As the team itself recognized during the race, the Spaniard’s stop in the pitlane was chaotic, because the left front nut was not properly tightened, so they had to stop again on the next lap to fix it.
As a consequence, Alonso dropped to 14th position and the FIA investigated the action for an ‘ unsafe release ‘, as indicated in article 34.14 d) and 34.14 e) of the Formula 1 Sporting Code. After a long wait, the resolution arrived with a statement from the stewards indicating that no action would be taken against the Asturian pilot.
As indicated by the governing body, “the stewards listened to the driver of car 14 [Fernando Alonso] and the team representative”. They were reviewing video and audio evidence of the moment when his left front wheel had an improperly tightened lug nut, in that the tire came loose by a small margin, but after viewing repeated footage, including from the pitlane, the onboard and those of the realization, “there was nothing to indicate that it was a different stop than normal”.
The director of the French team informed the mechanic that everything seemed to have gone well, but it was just at turn 3 that the rubber disengaged slightly. That was the moment when they spoke to the pilot on the radio to ask him to go through the pits again.
Alonso acknowledged that he could not see the tire from the cockpit, and that the only thing he felt was a vibration, something that is in line with what was seen in the video, where a small movement of the wheel can be seen.
As the explanations were in accordance with what the FIA stewards wanted to know, and all the retention mechanisms worked so that the rubber did not come loose, everything ended without penalty for the two-time champion as he safely left the track.
