Fernando Alonso took aim at the FIA for a poor showing at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after he was stripped of his third place after the race, and after he’d celebrated on the podium with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
Alonso was given a five-second penalty after lining up incorrectly in his grid box at the start of the race, when he briefly took the lead from Sergio Perez.
However, when he came in to pit, Aston Martin started working on his car before he’d served the penalty, so he was slapped with a 10-second penalty after the race, handing the podium to George Russell.
“I think it’s more an FIA poor show today, more than disappointment from ourselves” Alonso told Sky Sports.
“You cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pitstop, they had enough time to really inform [us] about the penalty, because even if I knew that maybe I open 11 seconds to the car behind.”
“No one told me this, they told me just five seconds in the first stint and I opened seven or eight, and then in the second one there was no information at all, not even an investigation.”
“So yeah, I know the team is trying to review the thing because we need to understand fully the second penalty.”
Alonso not mourning lost podium
The six-point swing from Aston Martin to Mercedes also means the Black Arrows jump Alonso‘s team in the constructors’ championship, despite Mercedes not being the second-quickest team in either Saudi Arabia or Bahrain.
However, they’ve had four finishes from a possible four, while both Ferrari and Aston Martin have had one retirement each. It was also a monumental loss for Alonso in what would’ve been his 100th podium – though he didn’t seem to bothered about that fact.
“It doesn’t hurt much to be honest,” Alonso added. “I was on the podium, I did the pictures, I took the trophy, I celebrate with the champagne and yeah, now I have apparently three points less, I don’t have 15 I have 12.”
“I don’t care that much, because I celebrate. and now I have three points less. Okay, let’s let’s try to recover it in Australia.”
