Alonso is demoted to P8. Stroll: P7-> P6 Tsunoda: P8-> P7
Alonso should know by now that you’re only allowed to drive according to strict FIA guidelines. There’s no “racing” in F1, only passing cars that behave predictably at all times on the approved DRS straits.
This sounds like some great racing! I’m hoping that next they think of putting in a new lane all the way around the track, this can be the ‘passing’ lane. All the slow drivers should stay out of it.
Either that or one car on top of another in the gravel, you know- consistency.
I haven’t seen the race or incident yet.
But that’s some big rookie iracing energy from Russell. Blaming the other car for braking too early.
Edit:
I have since watched the incident. My original thought stands. What a bullshit penalty.
I can see this being a controversial penalty considering a part of the blame does fall on Russell for not reacting to Alonso slowing down (checking from the driver cam he seems to have plenty of time to react), but overall I think Alonso does deserve the penalty. I’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish but his deliberate actions cost Russell the race.
He tried to compromise his entry to gain some exit speed, giving him a better chance to defend from Russel
In the media pen Alonso himself said nothing about that, just said he was focused ahead of him and vaguely referenced battery deployment issues over the course of the race.
I don’t really believe that. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit but I think he’s too good of a driver to mess it up like that.
Perez drove an entire lap while going deliberately slow in every corner of sector 3 in Abu Dhabi and didn’t get penalized. Hamilton didn’t bin the car either. Considering that, there is no way this penalty is justified. What if Alonso had a sudden PU issue slowing him down¿? Would Russell still blame Alonso for the crash when it is his responsibility to react and maintain control¿?
going consistently slow in the corners is a lot different than suddenly going very slow in a single corner.
The first time he did it, it was very different so he should have been punished.
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Perez drove an entire lap while going deliberately slow in every corner of sector 3 in Abu Dhabi and didn’t get penalized. Hamilton didn’t bin the car either. Considering that, there is no way this penalty is justified.
FIA being inconsistent is the norm. Last year Norris got a penalty for driving slowly despite not really obstructing anyone. If you want my opinion, then Perez should’ve also received a penalty.
What if Alonso had a sudden PU issue slowing him down¿? Would Russell still blame Alonso for the crash when it is his responsibility to react and maintain control¿?
If he doesn’t get off the racing line, yes. The first thing any driver does when they have a severe PU issue is get off the racing line. Just like Russell should’ve had time to react, in this hypothetical scenario Alonso would’ve also had time to react and get off the racing line. Alonso should’ve received a penalty even if it was a PU issue that caused him to slow down that much.
Fernando isn’t guilty of anything more than the drivers desperately holding on to P10 for the final point every race or sandbagging to help a teammate, and I don’t recall a penalty of this severity getting dumped on any of them.
George reacted too slowly, probably thinking about the move he was going to make instead of the action happening in front of him.
I’m not saying it was fair or George was at fault, but I don’t agree with the penalty applied either.
I think any driver defending in a manner that puts the other driver at risk should be penalized. That’s not a controversial opinion, we literally have rules against such behavior when it’s very obvious (break checking and weaving). In this case he slowed down into a turn where he was guaranteed to get in Russell’s way. Even if Russell had reacted in time he still would’ve been forced to slow down because it would’ve been next to impossible for him to pass Alonso in that turn. And we know what happened when Russell didn’t react in time. It’s erratic driving by Alonso and that deserves a penalty.
If you look at the throttle trace this is a slam dunk erratic driving penalty. Brake checking is not tough racing, it is dirty racing.
Brake checking to erratic driving should be clearly identifiable as having an abrupt drop in speed. The trace here is meaningless as there is in fact more than one way to drive thru a corner and a trace will only will only highlight that.
What I would love to see is George’s telemetry response to Alonso, because George’s on boards appear to show him barreling ahead while Alonso’s harvest lights are flashing.
360 windmill example here of reckless driving, on behalf of the Mercedes.
Harvest lights aren’t brake lights.
For me this penalty was a bit of a grey area rather than slam-dunk, though I’m fine with it in the end (and I’m a huge Alonso fan). I can see how it qualifies as erratic, though we’ve seen similar moves before go unpunished and it also looks like Russel is far enough back to have time to react.
I’m torn on this because while driver safety is important I’d also be loathed to lose even more fighting tools, and some amount of trickery like this is a part of duels in racing that I enjoy. Far more than the usual fare of DRS passes on a straight, at least.
Still, the grey area around it is murky waters and while Fernando is usually a master at threading that needle it’s probably fair to say he overstepped the line this time.
I am hopeful in saying that most of George’s fans would agree he should have not found in this predicament if he reacted properly. On the other hand I absolutely place the blame on Fernando for his behavior, since it’s not the first time he pulls moves like this.
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Mates, I really find it hard to trust the FIA with no transparency.
This was a racing incident at most. The official writeup of Alonso’s actions with telemetry is very plain, lifting up off the gas was the primary reason for slowing. Ol George over there didn’t know what to do other than keep the pedal to the rock.
FIA has gotten consistently worse since the 2021 WDC incident lmfao.
Yeah they are going through a enshittification period
