During the intense final stages of the Shanghai sprint event, Spanish driver, Fernando Alonso was embroiled in a close contest for the third spot alongside Ferrari‘s competitors. His struggle was intensified by his rapidly deteriorating tyres.
Unexpectedly, contact ensued at the ninth turn, just two laps shy of the finish line, culminating in a puncture for Alonso. Consequently, it necessitated a pit-stop to acquire fresh tyres, though he ended up retiring from the race.
Both drivers were called by the stewards ahead of the qualifying round to deliberate on the collision, after which Alonso was held responsible as he had the chance to evade the collision.
In spite of Alonso’s retirement, the stewards stipulated that the standard procedure of applying a 10-second penalty to his overall time must be upheld; a peculiar aspect of the regulations that has prompted calls for the FIA to review.
“As per the guidelines on driving standards, which was agreed with the teams, an infringement of this nature required that a baseline penalty of 10 seconds was to be added to the time of a car that caused a collision,” the stewards expressed in their statement.
“Article 54.3 of the Sporting Regulations states if the 10 second penalty is imposed after the end of a sprint session, then 10 seconds will be added to the elapsed time of the driver concerned. We accordingly added 10 seconds to the elapsed time of Car 14.”
They further advised the FIA about the vague language in the regulations regarding the retirement of cars and the resultant impact on penalties imposed, recommending necessary amendments for clearer understanding.
Following the sprint, Alonso, in an interaction with Spanish channel DAZN, commented that Sainz had not accorded him as much space in their duel as he had availed to his compatriot earlier in the lap.
“Turn 7, I think we were evenly matched, then in turn 8 I attempted to go to the outside,” Alonso expounded. “However, he opened the line to not provide me enough room, so in turn 9 I replicated what he did in turn 8.”
“I made a move to the inside line to prevent him from having room, but in turn 8 I expanded so we didn’t come into contact, and in turn 9 he didn’t, hence we collided.”
The three penalty points Alonso received imply he has garnered a total of six points over the 12 months period.