Could Aston Martin F1 Team Appeal Fernando Alonso's Penalty?
After an incredible performance from Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin AMR23, despite a 5-second penalty, the 2-time champion was hit with a 10-second penalty pushing him back to P4 from P3. Now, pundits across the F1 world are wondering whether the British team could appeal the penalty due to the nature of the issue.
The second punishment for Alonso stemmed from a member of the pit crew touching the rear of the car with a jack stand. But from the clip viewers were shown, it's questionable as to whether this punishment fits the bill.
Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins, a new pundit and previously Aston Martin's chief strategist, wonders whether Alonso and Aston Martin can appeal this decision.
"They have all of the DNA, loads of ways of looking at it," she said.
"Off the camera to see if was five seconds before someone touched the car. Even the suspension sensors will show whether there was a little lift."
The FIA will surely have to show solid evidence that the car was "worked on" as per the regulations. On top of this, the fact that the punishment was revealed after so much time is another reason for Aston Martin to complain.
For example, if the Spaniard knew he'd received another penalty, he would have pushed harder to potentially make up that time and maintain his 100th podium result.
Alonso himself added his comments to the storm:
"I think it is more FIA, poor show today. More than disappointment from ourselves.
"You cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pitstop.
"They had enough time to inform about the penalty because even if I knew that maybe then I open up 11 seconds to the car behind."
To add to this, if the punishment was known across the grid, Lewis Hamilton could have pushed to narrow the distance between himself and George Russell, potentially giving him a P4 finish and another 2 points to add to his standings.
This is an embarrassing moment for the FIA as poor organisation has led to more mistrust between the governing body and the drivers. And with the relationship between drivers and teams and the FIA hanging on by mere threads already, this isn't reflecting well.
UPDATE
The British team did appeal the ten-second penalty which the FIA later confirmed was removed from Fernando Alonso's time, putting the Spanish driver back in third place.