F1 | Rossi: “Difficult to accept the penalty for Alonso”

It was a complicated weekend that Alpine experienced in Miami. On Saturday Esteban Ocon was unable to take part in qualifying after the violent bang occurred in turn 17 in which he damaged the body, while on Sunday Fernando Alonso was punished with two penalties that made him lose the eighth place finish.

The two-time world champion, when he was already in eighth place, received a first 5 ” penalty for contact with Pierre Gasly which made him retreat to ninth position, but at the end of the race he was punished with a further 5 ” for having cut the track and obtained an advantage.

Specifically, on lap 53, Alonso cut the chicane in turn 14 in order to get away from Mick Schumacher and exit the DRS zone which would have made him easy prey for the Haas driver. This decision of the race management did not go down to Laurent Rossi, CEO of Alpine, who harshly criticized her in a statement released on the social profiles.

“Due to a penalty given to Fernando after the end of the race, our six points have been transformed into four. This decision cost us a double points placement and is difficult to accept as Fernando slowed down to nullify the advantage gained during the cut and we were unable to present evidence to clarify this situation before the penalty was issued. “

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

“If we had had the opportunity to clarify everything we are sure that Fernando would have kept his ninth place”.

“Next weekend we will be back in Spain and we are determined to have a clean race weekend and demonstrate the true potential of our package.”

This type of penalty cannot be appealed, nor is any convocation issued that could allow the team or the driver to explain their point of view, leaving the commissioners with the task of deciding everything.

Thanks to this penalty Alex Albon inherited the ninth place, while Lance Stroll finished in tenth position with a delay of only 1 tenth. Alonso, on the other hand, closed for the fourth consecutive time with a zero in the standings.

For the Spaniard this start of the season is definitely unfortunate. In addition to the technical problems that stopped him in Jeddah and compromised his qualifying in Australia, now there are decisions by the stewards who prevent him from realizing the potential of the car in the race.