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Fernando Alonso has issued a response to the 20-second time penalty he received at the 2024 F1 Australian GP. The Spaniard claimed that the same maneuver on a different track layout might not have yielded the penalty or the same adverse reaction.
The Australian GP saw the Aston Martin driver and George Russell battle it out in the later stages of the race. Russell had fresher tires and was hounding Alonso in a battle for P6. As it turned out, on the penultimate lap, the Mercedes driver crashed out in turn 6 and brought out a virtual safety car.
The race ended in formation, but to everyone's surprise, Fernando Alonso was under investigation for the incident. After meeting both drivers, the stewards deemed Alonso responsible for potentially dangerous driving and gave him a 20-second time penalty.
The Spaniard claimed that he was surprised by the penalty call in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter).
"Double points for the team and a better race pace than the rest of the weekend allowed us to cross the finish line in 6th and 7th place. A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars," Fernando Alonso tweeted.
"At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world we will never be even investigated."
He added:
"In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola 2005/2006, Brazil 2023, changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport. We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tires, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising.
"We have to accept it and think about Japan, to have more pace and fight for positions further up the field. Thank you, team!"
George Russell's take on the Fernando Alonso incident
George Russell was questioned about his incident with Fernando Alonso at Melbourne soon after it happened. Russell did not immediately criticize the Spaniard and call it a brake-test. However, he said he was caught off-guard by the manner in which Alonso slowed down much earlier before the braking point.
Calrifying that he wasn't going to accuse Alonso of anything, Russell told Sky Sports:
"I'm not going to accuse him of anything until we see further. I was right behind him for many, many laps. I was half a second behind him before the corner."
He added:
"Then, suddenly he slowed up dramatically and got back on the power. I wasn't expecting it and he caught me by surprise. That part is on me. It's interesting he's been called by the stewards. I'm intrigued as to what they have to say."
Fernando Alonso ended up losing two places from where he finished, while George Russell ended up out of the race completely. The ruling generated plenty of debate among fans.
