Was there a touch from the president of the FIA ​​​​to the stewards in the sentence on Alonso?

Reluctantly and trying to justify the unsustainable, but backing down after all in the outrage of the 30-second penalty on Alonso in Austin. The panel of Commissioners headed by Garry Conelly gave his arm to twist after initially refusing.

Was the sequence of refusing and then admitting the claim for processing in view of new evidence agreed upon? Or was there a call to convince them from high levels in between? That is one of the questions that journalists are wondering in the paddock in Mexico at the moment.

Alpine, rightly so

In Alpine they were damaged in image with the concatenation of Alonso’s departure and Piastri’s subsequent refusal to drive with them in 2023, but in this case they have supported their driver in an exemplary way . Fernando leaves at the end of the season, but despite this they defended him tooth and nail. His attitude honors them in every way.

They couldn’t understand so much nonsense together and they didn’t understand how they were held responsible for a car that the Race Director , Neils Wittich, considered valid. It is one of the leaks that has been known these days, that from Race Control the Alpine wall was informed (it is not known who did it) that the car was correct to continue and they did not receive any indication that they should remove it or repair that mirror that vibrated and finally fell off, as happened in other cars such as Checo’s (front endplate) or Hamilton’s.

But those were words that are carried by the wind. The bulk of his claim was about being out of time, accepting Haas’s protest 24 minutes after the half hour marked as valid. When considering “whenever it is impossible for them to do it within the established period”, a tagline that is collected for competitions such as Rallies and Raids, when the car has to reach the assistance or these are far from the offices. The stewards had no choice but to accept the error of one of them, who would have said to Haas: “No problem, present it and we will admit it”, as recognized by this Thursday’s ruling.

The 30 seconds were excessive and have never been applied in the modern era to any pilot, except for failure in the technical verifications (weight, measurements or gasoline), where there is no other sanction. And less when the race director gave the car the go-ahead (after two complaints from Haas internally), as well as the technical inspection after the test.

the war goes on

An internal war is intuited between the current Permanent Race Director, appointed by Ben Sulayem, and the classic FIA stewards, more inclined to the candidate supported by Jean Todt, Graham Stoker. Thus, in the new sentence they insist on legislating something that the World Sports Council has to do.

“Despite the above determinations, the Stewards are concerned that car 14 was allowed to remain on the road with a loose mirror assembly, which ultimately fell off, and strongly recommend that procedures be put in place to monitor such matters and, where necessary, require that the problem be rectified as has been done several times in the past, either via a radio call to the team or by displaying the black and orange flag, which requires the car to return to the pits to repair the problem. they also have a responsibility under Article 3.2 of the FIA ​​Formula 1 Sporting Regulations. We also understand that the FIA ​​President has initiated a review on the use of the black and orange flag.”

They correct Wittich again in his final observation and his appreciation of what was happening, something that they did not notice either until Haas protested, otherwise they could have acted during the race to notify the Race Director himself. The words “concern and emphatically” only serve to certify that they do not get off the donkey despite the fact that they represent a clear confrontation with the highest judge of each Grand Prix. A tidal wave is in the offing this winter within the FIA ​​to correct what the president should have done when he took over in December 2021. He is not likely to let another Austin show repeat itself.