Fernando Alonso moved closer to an automatic ban after the stewards gave him two penalty points on his licence for colliding with Zhou Guanyu.
The Aston Martin driver has collected eight penalty points on his licence within the last nine rounds. He will not lose any penalty points until March next year.He will trigger an automatic ban if he collects four penalty points on his licence over the next 15 rounds.
The collision occured shortly after Daniel Ricciardo passed Zhou at turn three on lap 20. Alonso saw an opportunity to follow him through and made for the inside but collided with the Sauber. “What the fuck is he doing?” exclaimed the bemused driver as he rejoined the track.
“I was obviously looking at a white car behind me, overtaking me side-by-side into the corner,” Zhou explained. “The next thing I saw was a green Fernando trying to dive-bomb.”
“I think he was trying to race the guys I was also overtaken by,” he told the official F1 channel, “I think he just went too deep and hit me basically. So the car was quite damaged after that. [I was] lucky enough to continue, to be honest.”
The stewards held Alonso entirely responsible for the collision. “The driver of car 14 [Alonso] attempted a very late overtake on car 24 [Zhou] on the inside into turn three,” they noted.
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“He never got in a position to have the right to the line and made contact with car 24 at the apex. The stewards determine that the driver of car 14 was wholly at fault.”
Alonso admitted he made a mistake while trying to pass the Sauber but said the penalty made no difference to his race after finishing out of the points in 18th.
“It was a difficult race,” he admitted. “When you don’t have the pace, you have to try different alternatives strategies. We tried the three stops.
“Then I locked up and I touch Guanyu in turn three, I had the penalty. All in all it didn’t change probably the result because we were out of the points.”
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2024 Austrian Grand Prix
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- Pirelli introducing new C6 tyre to improve racing on street tracks next year
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- Norris and Verstappen’s Austrian GP collision “blown out of proportion” – rivals
J765
30th June 2024, 18:28
Has Alonso ever left a team in a higher position than the one it was in when he started?
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
30th June 2024, 21:00
Let’s see:
Minardi 2000 0 points equal last in championship, 2001 0 points last in championship
Renault 2002 4th, 2006 double WDC and double WCC reigning
McLaren 2006 3rd, 2007 DSQ – championship points 1st
Renault 2007 3rd, 2009 8th
Ferrari 2009 4th, 2014 4th
McLaren 2014 5th, 2018 6th
Alpine 2020 5th, 2022 4th
Aston 2022 7th, last season and currently 5th
So 8 teams, 7 scoring points, 4 better off, 2 worse off and 2 no change.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2024, 12:31
You forgot something about 2007: they were 2nd in championship points even without dsq, because they lost the 15 points they got in hungary because of a penalty, so ended with 203 to ferrari’s 204.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
1st July 2024, 15:43
Thanks Esploratore, to be honest I don’t think I ever knew that given that I’d written the championship battle off following the DSQ.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
30th June 2024, 18:38
Where are all the insults towards Alonso? In contrast to Verstappen Alonso was “wholly” to blame and his penalty points show he is a more regular offender than Verstappen. Wouldn’t it make more sense for all those people screaming for fairness and safe racing to focus on Alonso?
MadMax (@madmax)
30th June 2024, 19:01
Alonso and Verstappen both were fully to blame. Alonso did it by accident, Verstappen just decided to crash into his opponent.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
30th June 2024, 20:36
No, that is wrong. Verstappen was only “predominantly” to blame.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
1st July 2024, 6:58
No. That is wrong. The assignation of ‘wholly’ or ‘predominantly’ was that of the stewards. Your statement assumes that stewards are 100% correct 100% of the time.
And I am surprised you cannot think of reasons why the Norris / Verstappen incident has generated more debate than this one.
SteveP
1st July 2024, 8:18
The cameras were constantly on the front end battle, VER/NOR shunt was prime viewing, meanwhile ALO/ZHO had an anonymous shunt at the back with an onboard that showed a lurch indicating something happened, and an exterior camera caught a partial view of the actual impact.
So, pretty much no one saw it, while at the front Max was being Max.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I was expecting something like what happened from the moment Lando made his first overtake attempt.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
30th June 2024, 19:46
Might be because the other incident happened at the front, while this was backmarkers having a clash.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
30th June 2024, 21:11
@uzsjgb Part of the reason is that Alonso is assumed in some circles to be something of a pantomime villain, with the result that when he does this sort of thing, the reaction is *sigh* “Typical” – and the others tend to look at his position and think, “He was having a rubbish race and this was simply part of it”.
Verstappen was obviously not having a bad race because he was still a win contender (in fact, had the penalty for Norris come through half a lap earlier, I think Verstappen wouldn’t have even bothered defending the corner, rather trusting himself to keep within 5 seconds of Norris and win one way or the other). He also has precedent for deliberately sloppy driving, which tends to result in his moves being framed accordingly whether they merit that treatment or not.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 5:33
Pretty ironic since Alonso is one of the cleanest racers on the grid and maybe the only top driver in the entire field without a single famous crash. So, the most undeserved reputation in the field. Every last bit of his reputation is based on the fallout in 2007. Prior to then, he had zero reputation of any kind.
BTW, I’ll note that Zhou was the only back marker in the incident as FA, despite being in the slowest car besides the Williams and Sauber, was on target for either P10 or P9 if he could get by DR as they were on the same exact strategy.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
30th June 2024, 18:58
Who knows whats happened to Alonso, from consistently getting the maximum or close to maximum results to losing to stroll and making a hash of driving in a matter of months.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 5:35
He was on target to score points in the slowest car on the grid besides Sauber and Williams. He scored a 6th in Montreal just two races ago. So, nothing has happened besides the car being awful and Lance doing his best when no points are on offer. He still has triple the points Lance does.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
1st July 2024, 9:29
The majority of those points were early season though. Since Imola Alonso has averaged 13th with one points scoring race, and Stroll has averaged 11th with two points scoring races.
He’s gone from smashing Stroll race after race to often finding himself a couple of places behind Stroll. It’s just odd.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 13:24
Wow, he’s outscored Alonso by a whole point?! And that was even with Alonso first baiting half the field in Imola in to pitting way too early just so Lance could jump the field + hanging back to feed dirty air to Yuki in Canada so he could get by him and then Alonso easily pulled away. And still, he’s only gotten one point more out of it.
If you’re trying to judge this honestly, common sense tells you why most of his points came early: because the car was competitive then and has since been incredibly uncompetitive w/Canada being a small interlude and once again when it mattered and points were actually possible he out qualified his car and even put in front of Lewis who was in a car that got pole.
As for the races when the car was super uncompetitive, I replied to an earlier post of yours making this comment (which you seem to make a lot lately) and went through the issues that occurred that made his results appear like a bigger drop than is the reality. Either way, even if there weren’t mitigating circumstances, it’s telling that, as usual, Lance can only be competitive with Alonso when the car is uncompetitive, points aren’t on offer meaning it doesn’t even matter. While Alonso is demotivated, Lance is excited because he thinks he’s proving himself. Yet, once again like yesterday, when even a sniff of points were possible, FA was on track to score (10th) and Lance was nowhere. So, this is actually the first race where FA left a point on the table.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
3rd July 2024, 17:46
I just hold Alonso in very high regard, which I assume you do too. Realistically no one on the grid comes close to his level of consistency at a top top level for such a long period.
I’m not sure I quite follow the rest of your comment(s). I say Alonso has dropped off drastically this season, you say he hasn’t – he’s just gone from annihilating Lance in qualis and race event after event to matching him at best for several races now.
I don’t think I’m being unfair on him, he’s just set the bar incredibly high for the last 20 years.
Nick T.
4th July 2024, 7:12
@brightlampshade I agree. My only disagreement is the idea he has declined substantially and pointing out that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only times Lance has outperformed him in quali was during weekends when the car had no prayer of getting into Q3. To me that smacks of demotivation while for Lance, just the chance to out qualify FA is enough to motivate him. I’m sure he’s getting a bit slower with every season. If the car improves after the summer break and he doesn’t resume smashing Lance, then I will be very worried.
Mark Reville (@myrrve)
30th June 2024, 19:28
He’s just too old and makes too many errors. Retire gracefully at the end of the season Fernando.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
30th June 2024, 23:04
The guys who run F1 want Alonso to retire because they want to advertise to a younger less educated demographic. So they can sell more products, etc..
But no, hes still better than Stroll will ever be, despite the owner of the team building the car around his kid, and using Alonso as a test mule, and the Stewards penalizing him for other people’s mistakes.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 4:47
One of the most ignorant comments I’ve seen on this site. But people often say things about Max, Lewis and Alonso that are so devoid of any basis in reality it’s too be expected.
Basically, we’ve got people like you who will argue the driver who was clearly the second best on the grid last year and as recently as China qualified 3rd in both the sprint and quali is now too old because in a five race span where the car has been absolute trash he’s had a lock up that resulted in contact that took neither car out?
If you’re basing it on penalty points, that’d be even more baseless considering two of his three penalties weren’t mistakes:
-Australia he never even made contact and the majority of opinions I saw thought the penalty was a joke (not helped by Herbert who has been vocal in his hatred for Alonso was a steward)
-China, he had the slightest kisses of contact in a wheel-to-wheel battle when Sainz had plenty of room and got a penalty that again was considered highly questionable, especially when you consider that someone locking up and t-boning him got no penalty
-This. So, where are all the big mistakes?
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
30th June 2024, 19:44
wont happen. ever. that rule is pointless as they never enforce it. they just stop handing out points until clear
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2024, 12:44
Exactly, I always say that whenever penalty points are brought up: stewards, want to make us believe penalty points matter? Then give bans when drivers close to 12 points commit infractions, until you don’t I will not give any consideration to penalty points.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2024, 12:45
until then*
Ben
30th June 2024, 19:46
Alonso and Hamilton showing F1 isn’t an old man’s game.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
30th June 2024, 23:05
Not unless you are a Stewards penalizing HAM and ALO unfairly.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
30th June 2024, 23:05
(singular)
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 4:49
Sure seemed like it last year when Alonso had a good car and no one was on his level but Max. But, yeah, keep making yourself look foolish.
Let’s also not forget that Hamilton smashed Russell last year.
ollie studio45
30th June 2024, 20:09
What’s with the ageism? Most of the other drivers do this sort of thing more often and Alonso indulged in these lunges when he was younger too. Let’s tone down the toxicity please.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 5:12
It’s not his age. A lot of people, especially in the UK, Just hate Alonso’s guts (some love him there too, but most of his fiercest “critics” are there). He’s one of three drivers that have large groups of fans targeting them with irrational levels of hatred (Max and Lewis being the others). His age, just like with Lewis, is simply something they see as an easy target or excuse to mock.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2024, 12:50
Age also has something to do with it though because he’s now at an age where typically drivers already lost several tenths at his peak and imo he’s been performing way above expectations until now, age-considered, so people will be looking out for signs he’s no longer at peak.
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 13:29
I was referring solely to why people are attacking him. I don’t think they care about his age. They know they can’t claim he’s not great. So, the moment the car is uncompetitive and he makes a small mistake, they use the age thing to hide their agenda, which is that they’re rooting for him to fail. But I agree, despite being the second best driver on the grid last year, he still was not at his peak then. He’s performed great this year whenever the car was remotely competitive. So, to me, it’s clear that even if age is impacting him, it’s 99% just a lack of motivation and the car sucking.
Edvaldo
30th June 2024, 20:27
Alonso probably would gladly accept a ban from racing that pile of junk for a weekend.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st July 2024, 12:51
Ahah, that’s also true, in the remote case they enforce the rule.
melanos
30th June 2024, 21:15
Bit harsh, but Herbert was there so there was no way Alonso would not get a penalty
Yes it was his fault, but there was zero intentionality. He locked, oversteered and hit Zhou mostly as a passenger. And there was no appreciable damage. Giving the same penalty as in the Max/Lando incident is… well what you would expect of Out-for-Blood Johnny, who should be banned from stewarding for the next 500 geological ages
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
1st July 2024, 0:00
He divebombed a car that was 2 cars aheead. There was absolutely no way the move would work unless Zhou just chose to give the position away completely.
Som he either missed the braking point or tried to overtake a similarly paced car from at least 3 or 4 car lengths.
As for the penalty, anything resulting in contact will be given a 10s penalty as far as I know, it’s the new standard for this year. Furthermore, Hülkenberg was given a 10s penalty yesterday for a “similar” move that didn’t even result in contact (where Alonso himself was the victim). A bunch of F3 and F2 drivers were given 10s penalties for contacts of varying intensity.
So no, it’s not harsh nor has Alonso been singled out by some personal feud by a steward. He crashed into another car in an ill-advised move and was given the typical penalty for that (which, again, has been set at 10s penalty this year, so any previous season isn’t a proper antecedent).
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 5:01
It’s harsh considering Hamilton t-boned Alonso and got no penalty. And while, I agree Alonso earned a penalty, Zhou was in last place and we’ve seen five second penalties this before for contact that did not hurt someone’s race (this incident didn’t hurt Zhou’s race. So, while I agree he deserved a penalty, you knew Herbert would ensure he got the maximum acceptable penalty. Hell, he gave him an unprecedented 20-second penalty for an incident with no contact where Russell wasn’t even paying attention. Have we even seen another 20-second penalty this season even for an incident that included contact?
My bigger gripe is not even the penalty, but the fact that former drivers with known bad blood with current drivers should simply not be stewards for the sake of transparency and to assure unbiased judgements. Herbert accused Alonso of upsetting his wife, told Alonso he should retired in 2016, mocked fans who questioned his neutrality after Australia and so on. He also called Ricciardo a “social media driver” who “has deluded himself into thinking he can still do the job.” Is this someone we really think should be in the steward’s room?
Nick T.
1st July 2024, 5:03
seen five-second penalties before during this season*