Fernando Alonso in trouble after the FIA summoned him to explain his harsh criticism of the F1 stewards at the Miami Grand Prix.
In what was a very exciting Miami Grand Prix for the Alpine driver, he suffered two separate five-second time penalties dropping him out of the points.
Alonso was initially penalized for colliding with Pierre Gasly while attempting a daring overtaking manouvre. He was also penalised for leaving the track and obtaining an advantage, which dropped him to 11th place overall.
According to the double world champion, he and team representatives went to the FIA to appeal the second penalty believing the 40-year-old had done enough to reclaim the time lost, but they were dismissed.
“We arrived after the race with all the proof of giving the time back and they were just packing up, they were not even in the room,” said Alonso at the Spanish Grand Prix press conferences.
“We went there, we showed them all the data, they found themselves with their hands tied because they issued already the penalty and didn’t know how to get back from that document.”
“We believe it was very unfair and it was just incompetence from the stewards. They were not very professional.”
According to BBC, the FIA has summoned Alonso because of his statements. He was obviously not an outlier within the Alpine team in his conviction that the punishment was harsh, as their CEO, Laurent Rossi, hinted at it albeit not as vehemently in the days following the race.
Alonso is believed to have broken the FIA’s International Sporting Code paragraphs 12.2.1 f and 12.2.1 k. which states “Any words, deeds, or writings that have caused moral hurt or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members, or its executive officers, and more broadly on the interest of racing and values maintained by the FIA” may be considered a rule violation, according to Article 12.2.1 f.
In the meantime, Article 12.2.1 k states that rules can be broken if there is “any misconduct towards license-holders, FIA officials, officers, or members of staff, members of staff of the organiser or promoter, members of staff of the competitors, doping control officials, or any other person involved in a doping control.”
Garry Connelly, Felix Holter, Dennis Dean, and veteran Formula One driver Danny Sullivan assisted race director Niels Wittich in Miami.
Tim Mayer, Nish Shetty, David Domingo, and former driver Tonio Liuzzi make up the Barcelona panel, with Eduardo Freitas serving as race director for the first time.
On Friday, they reprimanded Alonso for impeding Lewis Hamilton at Turn 12 in FP1. Alonso will almost certainly receive a warning for his comments directed at the stewards during the Miami Grand Prix.
