Fernando Alonso does not agree with his Australian Grand Prix penalty, which he described as a “one-off” decision by the stewards.
The Aston Martin driver was given a post-race drive-through penalty for abruptly slowing in front of George Russell on the penultimate lap of the last race. The Mercedes driver crashed at turn six as a result of Alonso decelerating over 100 metres earlier than usual for the corner.The stewards called his driving “potentially dangerous” but Alonso said he is “totally against what was the outcome of the decision.”
“They have the power to do and and to decide and we have to accept it,” he told the official F1 channel, “but I’m surprised and totally disagree, for sure.”
Despite his penalty, the stewards said Alonso had “the right to try a different approach to the corner.” Asked whether the ruling set a precedent which will reduce options for defensive driving in the future, Alonso said: “I think it was one-off.
“It will never be repeated the same. I think we will never see a decision like in Australia ever again. So I accept it, I take it.
“I had a few of those, many, too many of those in my career. Hopefully at least no one else is having this kind of outcome, so I take it.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Russell believes Alonso pushed the limits of acceptable defensive driving too far by slowing down as much as he did so far before the corner.
“Every driver is open to change their line, brake earlier, power through the corner, do whatever,” he said. “But when we start braking in the middle of a straight, downshifting, accelerating, upshifting again, then braking again for a corner, I think that goes beyond the realms of adjusting your line.”
He said F1 drivers are so busy in their cockpits they should not be expected to anticipate a rival intentionally slowing in front of them.
“I was actually looking at my steering wheel in that straight as I’ve done every single lap prior. And when I looked up 100 metres before the corner, I realised I was right behind Fernando rather than the half a second that I was.
“We’ve got so many duties to take care of when we’re driving: Looking, going around the racetrack, changing all of the settings on the steering wheel, making sure you’re in the right engine mode, taking care of the tyres, talking to your engineer, managing the deltas on your steering wheel when it’s an in-lap, out-lap, Safety Car, whatever it may be. If you add into the mix, you’re allowed to brake in the middle of the straight to get a tactical advantage, I think that is maybe one step too far.
“[It’s] the same when we talk about moving down the straight to get out of the slipstream. There was lots of talk about that in the past.
“It’s not overly dangerous, but it has a concertina effect if everybody’s moving around. And if suddenly if you brake-test somebody and there’s 10 cars behind, it probably has a greater effect by the 10th driver than it does for the first driver behind.
“So as I said, I don’t think what Fernando did was extraordinarily dangerous, but it will open a can of worms if it wasn’t penalised.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Australian Grand Prix
- Alonso calls Australian GP penalty a ‘one-off I’ve had too many of’
- Red Bull saw warning sign of Australian GP brake problem on Saturday – Verstappen
- Failing to punish Alonso would have “opened a can of worms” – Russell
- Leclerc sure “many team principals” are pursuing Sainz for 2025 seat
- “Don’t put me under pressure” – The best unheard team radio from Melbourne
MichaelN
4th April 2024, 10:27
If Alonso had coasted to the corner he would probably have gotten away with it, but he re-applied the throttle and even up-shifted. Russell is absolutely right to emphasize that part of it. Reading the stewards’ report, it’s clear they went out of their way to find a reason to let this slide. It seems many of the former drivers who have been quoted objecting to the penalty have bought into Alonso’s untrue version of the tale (where this was all just a ‘slow in, fast out’ tactic) and haven’t bothered to read the stewards’ findings.
Alonso also wrongly claims that he has a ‘right’ to experiment in the way he did. He doesn’t, and that’s for the safety of all, such that the article he was penalized under applies to all FIA competitions, not just F1. Never mind that Alonso is also far too good a driver to fumble his braking point by such a huge distance.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
4th April 2024, 11:42
Russell admitted to staring at his steering wheel right before he ended up ‘too close’ to Alonso.
Russell lost his inside front, and crashed on his own accord in to the barrier.
Russell is responsible for being aware of the drivers around him, especially if he is the approaching driver.
The penalty was called because the crash looked bad, not because Alonso did anything wrong.
And no, Alonso coasts at a constant velocity after hitting the brakes at corner entry, he did not step on his accelerator, even if he did use it to balance the car, prior to corner entry. Alonso braked the first time to go from 280 to 240, he stabilizes his car on corner entry and drops ~20 kph velocity, at corner exit (to previous laps) and achieves far greater acceleration than any other laps. Which is consistent with ‘slow in, and fast out’ approach to defensive driving. Russell was staring at his steering wheel, and bottled it, and that’s all there really is to this disturbingly obnoxious penalty.
MadMax (@madmax)
4th April 2024, 12:44
The penalty was applied cause of Alonsos erratic driving. Facts stay facts.
Bonbonjai
4th April 2024, 13:36
Agreed.
Nick T.
4th April 2024, 20:12
From your username and constant attacks on Max, currently Lewis fans’ biggest target, I am guessing you’re extremely objective.
Even the Australia penalty was deserved, Alonso has gotten some famously unfair penalties over the years. A number of which drastically changed the WDC outcome during seasons he won or came in 2nd, but especially in 2007 and after. A number of which also would not have been penalties or would have been much lesser penalties in subsequent years.
He became enemy #1 for many in 2007 in a primarily British run sport just when the British public and media finally got a competitive British driver for the first time since Mansell (or Hill for a season, but Hill was never a sacred cow like Mansell or Hamilton). So, the level of vitriol in the media at the time was ludicrous.
Being saturated with British stewards and those in key positions + nonstop vilification, would undoubtedly have an impact. Even stewards who weren’t biased and others may not have believed they were biased, may have been subconsciously.
Dave
5th April 2024, 1:44
Erratic, driving or not, George simply wasn’t paying attention to the track but his steering wheel.
Fernando is not stupid enough to break test someone knowing that if he gets hit, hiis race could be over as well.
Alons’s biggest mistake was thinking that George was more skilled than he is.
I think Toto, judging by his comments, or lack of concerning the incident, realizes that regardless of whose at fault, it was stupid to try that move on the final lap.
I expect whoever he gets to come to Mercedes will be better than George.
Bonbonjai
4th April 2024, 13:41
“The penalty was called because the crash looked bad, not because Alonso did anything wrong.”
That statement is flat out wrong. He was penalised because his trace showed he definately did something wrong. And as an aside, stewards do not generally look at the consequences that follow an infraction / that might even have led to it, instead of the infraction itself. Just saying. If they did the penalties would not be so lenient.
Retep
4th April 2024, 14:29
I can’t help wondering if Alonso would have gotten the same penalty if Russel hadn’t crashed.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
4th April 2024, 17:19
Obviously not. Had Russel not crashed everyone would praise Alonso for his smart driving, and no trace would have been checked by the stewards. The crash is the only reason they looked into it.
Ajaxn
4th April 2024, 21:52
Deliberately slowing in a blind high speed corner is wrong on so many levels. The fact that he down sifted to disguise what he did, shows premeditation. It was another way to apply the brakes without it showing on the telemetry. And then there’s the fact that Hamilton called him out for the same thing in the race before. Alonso might think this was clever but it was always an accident waiting to happen. Thankfully there aren’t too many of those blind high speed corners.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 18:59
No, they saw the crash, looked at the data, didn’t find anything in it to legitimately call it a brake check, then scoured the rules to find something else so they could subjectively award a penalty. They look pretty stupid now that George has admitted he wasn’t paying attention.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
4th April 2024, 10:40
Poor fella
Nick T.
4th April 2024, 20:55
One can only imagine the penalty Alonso would have gotten had it been him who pulled alongside Hamilton and rammed into him like Vettel did. But, yeah, poor fella…
Aquila_GD
4th April 2024, 10:59
I think we can say that Alonso driving was erratic but did not cause Russell’s crash, meanwhile Russell crahsed because he was not paying attention. They were both penalised. End of Story
Fair outcome all around for everybody really.
slowmo (@slowmo)
4th April 2024, 11:34
Alonso’s driving contributed to the crash, that’s just a fact. You can argue that it was Russell’s fault ultimately but had Alonso not been erratic then Russell would have made the corner as expected. Alonso already got away with a brake test last year so was pushing his luck trying it again.
Coventry Climax
4th April 2024, 11:37
Exactly like I said: Probably distracted by something on the steering wheel, got caught out and crashed.
And then defend the decision to punish Alonso, obviously. What if someone, Alonso or any other driver, had a mechanical issue, causing a yellow? He’d have missed that too, and whose fault would that have been? The driver with the mechanical issue?
I like Russell less and less.
rprp
4th April 2024, 16:48
Curious to know what sort of mechanical issue would cause a driver to slow down and then speed up and upshift again before slowing down again within the space of about 100m.
That said, Russell wasn’t looking where he was going, as you point out.
Both of them are to blame, both took a hit.
Retep
4th April 2024, 18:43
Now suppose there was a mechanical failure that caused Alonso to slowdown, but not speed up. In that case Russel would have been even closer or ended up in Alonso’s gearbox. I’m not saying that what Alonso did isn’t dirty, but Russel is at least partially responsible for its own crash.
rprp
4th April 2024, 21:35
Indeed, and that’s why I think Russell isn’t blameless. Of course if it was a technical failure of such a nature, Russell would’ve come out of it looking silly, especially admitting to not really looking where he was going.
But it wasn’t a technical failure. Alonso was in total control, drove in a way you wouldn’t ever expect, and triggered the chain of silly events.
They both got their come-uppance.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 18:57
McLaren and Senna claimed to have such an issue when a very young Schumacher railed against Senna’s erratic and dangerous driving once upon a time…
Mayrton
4th April 2024, 11:48
It remains a much better idea to bump a competitor off in a high speed corner, since that is only punished with a 10sec penalty.
MadMax (@madmax)
4th April 2024, 12:47
Unless the competitor is smart enough to avoid the contact, as HAM showed countless times with the bully Verstappen.
Fortunately brake testing and erratic driving was punished, as it should have been in 2021 already.
Dave
5th April 2024, 1:32
Except Max didn’t run someone off the track on one of the fastest corners in F1 which could’ve led to that drivers death. Big difference..
grat
4th April 2024, 12:20
Erratic driving, followed by claims of a flaky throttle that was NOT backed up by telemetry.
You screwed up, Alonso. Stop talking about it, and move on.
MadMax (@madmax)
4th April 2024, 12:48
+1
Even now sticking to his clumsy explainations doesnt fit such an experienced driver like him.
David BR (@david-br)
4th April 2024, 13:42
Yeah Alonso, brake testing is perfectly fine, sure, if you do it. Just you, OK? Because you’re ‘special’.
Should now be black-flagged for Japan just for the arrogance.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th April 2024, 21:31
Yes, because getting a 20 sec penalty cause the driver behind can’t stay on track on last laps (singapore too) isn’t enough (sarcasm).
David BR (@david-br)
5th April 2024, 14:01
@esploratore1 You can save your sarcasm. The penalty was enough, obviously I’m not being serious, just irritated.
Alonso caused Russell’s crash by deliberately slowing unexpectedly (no doubt as a defensive move) and then accelerating into the corner. However mild, that’s brake testing, braking and accelerating unexpectedly to inconvenience the driver behind.
Sure Russell was looking at his steering wheel. Do people like you following F1 for years really need to be told that drivers do that repeatedly on every lap?! And when do they do it? When they don’t think their attention ahead is needed. It’s a split second but that was the split second Alonso chose to brake test.
I agree it’s a difficult call as, say, a driver might misjudge a corner, brake early then accelerate again with no incident behind caused. What then? But in this case Alonso was clearly trying to be ‘clever’, catching out Russell. And Russell’s point is valid: if that’s now deemed acceptable, how much brake testing are the stewards going to allow in the future?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
4th April 2024, 13:44
I agree with Norris and Piatri’s take on it. It wasn’t a brake test and Russell should’ve been more alert of it.
BasCB (@bascb)
4th April 2024, 14:45
I keep this “it was no break test” line from so many (most last race weekend off course). Off course, it wasn’t.
But what is the urge to keep hammering on that, when nobody claimed it was one, certainly not the FIA stewards in their report. It was a case of driving that was clearly intentional, it was doubtfull whether the given “reasoning” made sense, since Alonso even had to speed up again to even get to the corner at a reasonable speed and it certainly was erratic in the sense that nobody would have predicted this.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
4th April 2024, 15:29
Because it just wasn’t. And if it wasn’t a brake test, it shouldn’t have been penalized. Every bit of driving is intentional, unless you’re aquaplaning madly into a barrier or having mechanical problems.
This was still Russell’s mistake. He was flat out while Alonso was slowing down. He wasn’t close at all to him, he simply lost it in dirty air… and that’s not a penalizable offence in my book. Hamilton-Verstappen at Jeddah 2021 was, this just plain wasn’t…
And how do you measure how much your driving influence others anyway? what if Alonso was 2 seconds further away from Russell and did the same thing? surely Russell would feel the dirty air (they always say it’s hard to follow up to 2 seconds). So would that mean a penalty? What if Alonso did the same thing for several laps?
We all praised the battle at Interlagos between him and Perez. And I’m sure he did tricks like those, maybe not as extreme.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th April 2024, 20:02
The phrase “brake test” does not appear in the entire FIA rulebook. That would simply be an example of the sort of thing that can be penalised under the regulation under which Alonso was penalised.
Russell’s driving was imperfect, but since Alonso only suffered from it due to Fernando’s own worse error (that was in progress at the time of the imperfection), it would not be possible under the regulations to levy a penalty. “Predominantly to blame” is the criterion, not “100%”.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 18:52
Well, less than two weeks have passed and many are rewriting this as a brake check, even though the stewards said it wasn’t. It even seems to have been described as pretty much a brake test by this publication. Considering what it also wrote about 1989 and other distant controversies, I would expect this to be “remembered” as a tactical nuclear weapons test in ten years!
Jere (@jerejj)
4th April 2024, 18:06
@fer-no65 I also fully share Norris’ (& apparently also Piastri’s) take that he should’ve been more aware & prepared had he focused on the road ahead sooner.
sam
4th April 2024, 16:54
Found guilty, either appeal or shut up.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th April 2024, 17:28
Without wishing to rehash all of last week’s arguments, who is actually agreeing with George here? The drivers are either saying “let’s discuss in a meeting” (Max), “the corner is the issue” (Sainz), “I’ve not seen enough” Ocon or “no penalty” Lando. This comes after George apologised in the car, said he was caught out before being informed of an investigation and then concedes he was looking away when asked now.
I’m confused how a 20s penalty, exceeded only by Baku 2017 in the last decade, has ended up with so little support from those actually experienced driving the cars, with the only exception being the guy who made the driving error.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 19:10
Perhaps they need to get better driver stewards? Such a severe penalty should be supported by weighty evidence. If the rules don’t clearly call for it, they can write a new rule so that it can be penalised in future. If they can get agreement on such a rule…
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
4th April 2024, 19:22
I think the stewards have had a clear steer to officiate more strictly this season in light of the ridiculous 5 second penalties which actively encouraged rule breaking. The trouble is that they have made a mess of the Saudi penalty for Magnussen ( he was not penalised in the end due to the lapped cars rule, and he held drivers up with an outstanding penalty) and then made a mess of this. They’re reactively stewarding and laying shaky precedents.
They could easily have came out in the off season and changed the rules for Magnussen above and said, “we weren’t impressed by Alonso in Abu Dhabi, from this season on any large speed changes will be actively investigated”. Instead they sat on their hands and applied a flimsy ruling that no one can explain the circumstances it will next be applied.
This is mismanagement of the basic rules of the game. I suspect the drivers realise this and will be wanting some straight answers.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 19:52
Dangerous driving that leads to crashes needs to be discouraged. It’s clear that Alonso was trying something and may have been worried he crossed the line with his schoolboy-like cover-up and initial explanation. He was probably surprised when he saw that the data wasn’t clear and he had been within the limits of the existing rules… only to be baffled at the mealy-mouthed explanation as to why he was going to be hammered anyway. It might be hard to write a rule to stop this. It’s not like weaving or brake testing. If they can do it, there is agreement and it will not affect racing, then great. It can apply in the future.
Perhaps the steering wheels are getting too complicated? Is there a safety concern with all this stuff? After all, you used to be able to hop into the car and (pretty much) drive. When I do some laps in a sim I do my best to charge the battery and swap everything to attack for the fast lap, but usually get frustrated and switch to the F2004, which you don’t have to do this with. I’m obviously not as good at handling all of this as at least nineteen of the drivers on the current grid, of course!
If George was driving a road car, the insurance investigators might be interested in the fact that he was fiddling with the entertainment system and not looking at the road when he crashed…
David BR (@david-br)
5th April 2024, 14:06
You know that F1 drivers have to mess with dials and buttons constantly throughout a lap, right? And that means not looking at the road (or mirrors) for those split seconds.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
4th April 2024, 20:03
@rbalonso Because Russell’s part in the incident, although less serious, is considerably more interesting and has far more nuance available. Plus the stewards were essentially silent on it, so no fear of treading on the FIA’s unusually sensitive toes.
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
4th April 2024, 17:37
Hopefully it’s the can of worms where you keep your eyeglasses George.
An Sionnach
4th April 2024, 18:35
If there’s an argument for the penalty other than the contradictory stewards’ statement it’s that perhaps the out-of-the-ordinary-but-not-brake-testing driving might be okay anywhere else on the track, as you’re preparing for the blind right-hander here. Factors against this argument are how far Alonso was ahead, watching Russell’s onboard for the last several laps to see that he should have expected novel defence measures within the rules and… that Russell wasn’t paying attention. If George is allowed to not pay attention here, then Alonso should be allowed do what he did, which the stewards admitted was not clearly a brake check from the data.
It’s clear that George would not have crashed had he been paying attention and that there would have been no penalty had George been paying attention. The stewards now look like wallies for over-reaching in order to punish Alonso. The rules have to be clearly applicable and apply equally to all. It can’t be a matter of “well this is Alonso so we know he’s up to something” and “well this is Sir f a r t s -alot, who’s a jolly good chap”.
MadMax (@madmax)
4th April 2024, 19:40
Its clear Russell would not have crashed, if Alonso didnt perform his erratic driving. And the rules say erratic driving is not allowed. Sounds pretty simple.
Mark (@blueruck)
4th April 2024, 19:28
Some day when the Alonso papers are published we will be able to really know what Alonso was thinking. Until then, his public words on this subject are all spin.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
4th April 2024, 21:18
I think Jolyon Palmer’s Analysis handled this topic quite well. Alonso likes to take advantage of gray areas in the rules. If everyone did these things like Alonso did here, racing would suffer. I’m all for drivers trying to expand their gap ahead of DRS detection zones, but this incident was a case of avoidable unpredictable driving at a risky location. George could have done better, but he shouldn’t have been put in that situation to begin with. Alonso trying to play it off as a stuck throttle is ridiculous and came off a juvenile during the broadcast, let alone in hindsight. He knew what he was doing and he knew he shouldn’t have done it. If it was done to him he would have called it unsafe driving although I doubt he would have crashed as a result.
David BR (@david-br)
5th April 2024, 14:10
@ryanoceros Stuck throttle, dodgy battery, trying a different line into the corner…
The fact Alonso’s ‘explanation’ kept changing tells you (a) there’s a hidden true motive (we know what it is) and (b) he himself thought it was borderline out of order. Otherwise why not just admit it?
Kerry Maxwell
4th April 2024, 23:28
e done better, but he shouldn’t have been put in that situation to begin with. Alonso trying to play it off as a stuck throttle is ridiculous and came off a juvenile during the broadcast, let alone in hindsight. He knew what he was doing and he knew he s