FIA to issue rule clarification in Melbourne after Alonso podium farce
The FIA has confirmed that a rule clarification related to the circumstances surrounding Fernando Alonso's post-race penalty in Jeddah will be issued to teams ahead of next week's Australian Grand Prix.
Alonso scored his 100th career podium in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. However, the Spaniard's milestone result was a three-part affair involving an initial penalty followed by a Right of Review granted to Aston Martin and finally a U-turn by the stewards and Alonso's reinstatement.
Alonso's evening started with a minor transgression when the Aston charger lined up second on the grid but with his left-front tyre outside of his painted box, like Esteban Ocon in Bahrain.
Like the Alpine driver at Sakhir, the Spaniard was hit by the stewards an incorrect starting position and a 5-second penalty which he opted to take during his pitstop on lap 18, during the safety car regime.
Alonso's crews patiently waited for the 5-second period to elapse before springing into action and swapping the Aston's medium tyres for hards.
The two-time world champion's subsequent run to P3 was celebrated accordingly but minutes after the podium ceremony had concluded, the stewards levied a second 10-second penalty upon Alonso which demoted the latter to fourth.
For the stewards, It had come to light that during Alonso's 5-second pitstop period, Aston's rear jack mechanic had slotted his jack into position and touched the AMR23. The stewards thus deemed that Alonso's penalty had not been served correctly, which justified the 10-second sanction.
However, in a post-race Right to Review granted to Aston Martin, the team produced video evidence of several past instances in which a car was touched by a jack while its driver was serving a penalty, and was given a free pass by the stewards.
But the stewards reminded Aston Martin that it was previously agreed at a Sporting Advisory Committee meeting that “no part of the car could be touched while a penalty was being served as this would constitute working on the car.”
However, the team could find no mention of such an agreement in the minutes of the said SAC meeting, a fact that left the stewards with no other choice put to back-track on their decision and reinstate Alonso's third-place position in the final standings.
The FIA has now officially stated that a rule clarification on the matter shall be introduced at the next Sporting Advisory Committee taking place this week on Thursday 23 March.
The FIA comment reads in full: "The request to the stewards for review of the initial decision was made in the last lap of the race. The subsequent decision of the stewards to hear and grant the right of review by the competitor was the result of new evidence regarding the definition of ‘working on the car’, for which there were conflicting precedents, and this has been exposed by this specific circumstance.
"This topic will therefore be addressed at the next Sporting Advisory Committee taking place on Thursday 23 March, and a clarification will be issued ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. This open approach to the review and improvement of its processes is part of the FIA’s ongoing mission to regulate the sport in a fair and transparent way."
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