SUZUKA, Japan — Fernando Alonso’s controversial Australian Grand Prix penalty for potentially dangerous driving has split opinion among his Formula One rivals.
While defending fifth position from George Russell on the final lap of the Melbourne race, Alonso decelerated early on approach to Turn Six — the move caught the Mercedes driver off guard and his car lost grip in the dirty air in the wake behind Alonso’s Aston Martin, causing him to crash out of the race.
The stewards found Alonso had not braked that early at Turn Six at any of the preceding laps of the race, which it deemed to have been “extraordinary” enough to have caused a collision behind.
Alonso, who dropped from sixth to eighth as a result of the 20-second penalty he was given, said the decision will not change how he defends position in future.
“It was a bit surprising, but nothing we can do,” Alonso told reporters in Suzuka ahead of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. “I think it will not change much on how we drive, how we approach racing.
“There is no obligation to drive 57 laps in the same way. Sometimes we get slower pace to save fuel, to save tyres, to save battery. Sometimes we get slow into corners or into some sectors of the track to give the DRS to the car behind because that will be a useful tool if the second car behind is at a faster pace.
“All those things are completely normal. It was, it is and it will be forever in motorsport,” he added.
On the other side of the argument, Russell said the FIA risked setting a dangerous precedented if Alonso’s move was deemed OK.
“Obviously a bit of a strange situation that happened last week,” Russell said.
“Totally caught by surprise. I was actually looking at the steering wheel, making a switch change in the straight, which, you know, we all do across the lap. And when I looked up, I was in Fernando’s gearbox and it was sort of too late. And then next thing I know I’m in the wall.
“So I think, if it were not to have been penalised, it would have really opened the kind of worms for the rest of the season — and in junior categories — of saying, you know, are you allowed to break in a straight? Are you allowed to slow down, change gear, accelerate, do something semi-erratic? I don’t take anything personally with what happened with Fernando. And it probably had bigger consequences than it should have.
“If it went unpenalised, can you just break in the middle of a straight? I don’t know.”
One common theme was that Alonso’s move had…
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