Fernando Alonso has called Formula 1’s Miami stewards as “not very professional” in the aftermath of a penalty that cost him points.
Alonso classified ninth in Miami but was handed a five-second time penalty post-race after he was judged to have gained an advantage by cutting the chicane.
Alpine insisted in the aftermath that Alonso had lifted along the back straight to effectively relinquish the time he gained by cutting the track.
The penalty relegated Alonso outside of the top 10.
Speaking for the first time about the situation, ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso described the sanction as “very unfair” and labelled it as “just incompetence from the stewards.”
“They were not very professional, I think, in Miami.
“I missed one corner and then I gave back the time on the lap, but obviously you miss one corner, then there is the sector time just after that corner – so they saw the pink colour [on the timing screen] and they took the decision without asking for any proof.
“We arrived after the race with all the proof and the time back that we gave, and they were just packing up. They were not even in the room.
“We came there, we showed them all the data, they said give us five minutes and then they found themselves with the hands tied probably because they issued already the penalty and they didn’t know how to get back from that document.
“It was very bad, and honestly, I mean… yeah, it’s already the past but it is something that should not happen in Formula 1, with professionalism and standards Formula 1 has right now.”
Alonso outlined that “we saw a couple of things already [in 2022] that proves we still need to improve a lot” and “you need to have some knowledge about racing before being a Race Director or trying to monitor a race.”
He added that “I don’t think that knowledge is in place at the moment.
“I know there is a new Race Director here. I think [Eduardo] Freitas has a lot more experience with WEC and other categories at the top level, and I think that will already improve things.
“The accidents we had in Miami, Carlos [Sainz] and Esteban [Ocon], I think we pushed to have some barriers there and tyres or Tecpro and, you know… no one did anything. When you don’t have that knowledge of racing it’s difficult to talk.”
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