Fernando Alonso has escaped a penalty for using his DRS when he shouldn’t have, with the race stewards instead opting to hand the Ferrari team a £13,000 fine.
The issue was spotted by FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer who analysed the DRS data from Alonso’s F138 and found the system had been used on three occasions when it shouldn’t have been.
According to an FIA statement, the team failed to change the settings from “pre-race” to “race mode”, meaning he received the “DRS enabled” message despite being outside the one second gap needed to activate it.
“The DRS enabling system was not changed by the team from the pre-race to the race setting. The driver therefore incorrectly received the “DRS enabled” messages and reacted to them (when not entitled to) on 3 occasions,” read the stewards report.
“As soon as the team became aware of the problem they informed the driver only to use DRS when told to do so by the team.
“Whilst a small sporting advantage (less than one second over the entire race) was gained, the team argued that Car 3 suffered a disadvantage by being unable to use DRS on every legitimate occasion.
“However, the team is ultimately responsible for ensuring the system confirms to the regulations.”
This is the second time Alonso has avoided penalty for a similar issue. At the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix it was blamed on an FIA system fault which activated the Spaniard’s system.
