Although Alonso slowed down twice on the next straight to try to repay the tenths he gained, the stewards were unhappy with the way he handled the action, handing him a painful punishment after “having gained a lasting lead”.
The five-second penalty was enough for the man from Oviedo to fall to eleventh position, thus leaving him out of the points. Alpine bosses are unhappy with the situation because the FIA did not offer any possibility of returning the advantage, nor for the driver to explain his movements before being penalized.
Team chief Otmar Szafnauer believes this is particularly unfair because Alonso and the team themselves had no way of knowing how much distance they had to give back.
“We have to talk to the FIA at the next grand prix,” he said. “We need clarity on this, we need a way to say, ‘Look, you have to give back more time.'”
Formula 1 rules are clear that drivers cannot benefit from any occasion when they go off the track, and in the guidelines provided by the new director of races, Niels Wittich , it appears so.
“In the event of a car running off the track, the driver may rejoin, however this may only be done when safe, and without gaining any lasting advantage. At the absolute discretion of the race director, a driver may have the opportunity to give back all the advantage that you had when leaving the track”.
If, for example, a competitor cuts a chicane or a corner, it is their responsibility to clearly return the time, and this can include returning to even moving back one position from the driver in question.
Szafnauer commented that while it is easy for drivers to understand giving back the positions they gained when they go off track, it is much more difficult for them to understand the time advantage if the order of qualifying does not change.
That is why he thinks that, having Alonso done everything he thought was necessary, in addition to raising his hand and saying so on the radio to the team, the FIA should have sent a message asking the Asturian to slow down if they were not happy.
If the data is analyzed, at most, the two-time champion won about two or three tenths, something that could easily have been lost to compensate.
“If you go off the track and gain time, I mean if you pass someone who was ahead of you, then it’s easy to determine, you have to return position,” Szafnauer added. “In these kinds of situations, where everyone is behind you, how can you tell?”
“You need that information, and I think it was totally unfair to penalize him afterwards. They were behind and they ended up behind, so why are you penalizing him? Because he was way ahead, and if he is, just make him give back what he’s earned, not penalties. with five seconds, because he only won two, three or four tenths”, he assured.
Although the FIA ‘s position has been that the responsibility for returning time rests with the teams and the drivers, Szafnauer is clear that there are times when a clearer message is needed: “It would be very nice to receive feedback in the race to say that you haven’t given back enough.”
“Fernando [Alonso], once he got into the mainstretch, he lifted twice significantly, and I don’t know if he returned all the time, or most of it, but a lot,” he defended. “When he’s driving, he has to guess if he’s done well.”
The Alpine boss has also questioned the scale of Alonso’s penalty for an error, given that other incidents, such as Schumacher’s with Vettel leaving them out of the points, have resulted in no penalties.
“There are many times when drivers make a mistake going into a chicane. Monaco is one of them, how many times do people come out of the tunnel and cut that corner?” said the Romanian.
“They don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that they’re pushing too much, it’s towards the end of the race, the tires and the brakes suffer. Even a two-time world champion like Fernando can make a mistake, so then turn back the clock,” he said. Szafnauer.
“You try to do your best and you get that kind of penalty, I just think it’s wrong. Didn’t Mick Schumacher collide with Vettel when he was in the points and run him off the track? Did he? What kind of penalty did he get? There was nothing…” sentenced the head of the French.
