On the occasion of the Miami Grand Prix held last Sunday, Fernando Alonso received two five-second penalties each. While the first was awarded to the Asturian following a touch with Pierre Gasly in turn 1; the second was the consequence of a cutting in the chicane of turns 14 and 15.
Alpine wants confrontation
However, the Enstone team believes that the five seconds relating to the second penalty awarded at the end of the race were unjustified. The team, therefore, has declared that it intends to start a direct confrontation with the commissioners of the FIA, in order to better understand the reasons that led the federation to this decision.
What the regulation says
The sporting regulation code says that every pilot should not get an advantage going beyond the boundaries of the track. In fact, the driver can rejoin only when he can do so without obtaining a time or positioning advantage. At the discretion of the race director then, a driver may have the opportunity to give back the advantage gained by leaving the track.
The reasons of the team
Otmar Szafnauer, voice and team principal of the team, disagrees with what happened. Indeed, he declares that, as Alonso did not pass no other rider when he went off the track, the team was unable to tell him how much he should have slowed down for avoid a penalty; In fact, we recall that from this year the FIA has told the teams that it will no longer give orders to return the position, as it will be task of the latter do so, if they judge a maneuver by their pilot potentially punishable with a penalty.
Szafnauer's words
The team principal of Alpine to the microphones of Motorsport.com he declared: “We need to talk to the FIA about it at the next Grand Prix. We need to clarify this issue. We need a way to understand how much to slow down the pilots. If you go off the track and get an advantage by overtaking a car then it's easy: you have to give back the position."
“But in this kind of situation, where everyone is behind you, how can you know what to do? You need one immediate feedback from the stewards and I think it totally was unfair to penalize Alonso after the end of the race".
“The other riders were behind him and finished the race behind him. It makes no sense to penalize a driver who is ahead. If he's got an edge, then it is enough to make him pay back that small margin. It's certainly not necessary to inflict a five-second penalty just for gaining three or four tenths of a second."
SOURCE: Motorsport.com; f1ingeneral
