Alonso slams “incompetent” Miami F1 stewards after penalty

Alonso and his Alpine team were left infuriated by a post-race time addition penalty the double world champion received for cutting the Miami track’s tight chicane during the closing stages of F1’s most recent race.  

The stewards felt that in doing so Alonso gained a lasting advantage by running off-track, which he disputes.  

Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP, where Alonso was speaking in the pre-practice press conference, Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer had insisted his driver had “lifted twice, significantly” after cutting the Miami chicane while running ahead of Mick Schumacher.  

The penalty was Alonso’s second of the Miami race after he was also handed a five-second addition for hitting Pierre Gasly, with the second dropping him out of the points having finished eighth on the road. 

Alpine had already described the second penalty as “wholly unjust” and “difficult to accept” in strong, separate public defences of Alonso from Szafnauer and Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, with the former calling on the FIA to clarify the rules regarding handing back any advantage when no positions have changed if a driver goes off-track ahead of a rival. 

On Friday, Alonso also called the second Miami penalty “unfair” before suggesting his anger was partly provoked because he felt the Miami stewards had taken the decision “without asking [for] any proof” and had therefore been left with “their hands tied” once Alpine had presented its case. 

The document announcing Alonso’s second penalty referred to the stewards reviewing “video evidence” but not car telemetry Alpine would have been able to supply post-race, where it had “the right to appeal certain decisions of the stewards, in accordance with Article 15 of the FIA International Sporting Code and Chapter 4 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits”. 

“We believe that it was very unfair and it was just incompetence from the stewards,” said…