Fernando Alonso guilty and penalized. Several hours after the end of the Australian Grand Prix, the race commissioners Tim Mayer, Matteo Perini, Matthew Selley and Johnny Herbert decided to impose a penalty on the Asturian to be served immediately for having triggered the bad accident he had as the protagonist George Russell.
According to the commissioners, after having viewed videos, telemetries, listened to radio teams and listened to the drivers themselves, they decided to impose a Drive Through on the Aston Martin Racing driver, to be served immediately, therefore at the end of the race for having breached article 33.4 of the FIA sporting code dedicated to Formula 1.
The Drive Through, not being able to physically carry it out as the grand prix is now over, was estimated at 20 seconds to be added to Fernando Alonso's overall race time, taking it from 1h21'47″835 to 1h 22'07″835.
This change sees Alonso slip from sixth place finish to eighth, with Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda promoted to sixth and seventh place respectively. That's not all, because the commissioners added another penalty to the 42-year-old from Oviedo, taking away 3 points from his license which he won't get back until exactly one year from now.
The accident of George Russell, Mercedes W15
In the official document issued by the stewards at 7.48pm in Melbourne it is possible to read how Alonso was held responsible for the accident that occurred to George Russell at turn 6 on lap 57, the penultimate of the race.
Russell was following Alonso in an attempt to grab sixth place and the two were separated by approximately half a second. Alonso explained to the stewards that he wanted to approach Turn 6 differently, lifting his foot off the accelerator earlier than he had done up to that point to enter the corner more slowly and have a better exit.
Telemetry comparison between Alonso's laps 56 and 57 in the Australian GP
Photo by: Gianluca D'Alessandro
The maneuver caught Russell by surprise, leading him to close the gap he had to Fernando very quickly. This caused a loss of load on the Briton's Mercedes, crashing into it and causing it to end up against the barriers at Turn 6.
The telemetry of the AMR24 number 14, that of Alonso, showed that the expert Spaniard lifted his foot from the accelerator just before 100 meters earlier than he himself did during the race. Furthermore, Fernando braked significantly at an unusual point for the style he used during the race.
This conduct led the commissioners to consider Alonso's maneuver outside the limits imposed by the regulation, to be precise by article 33.4 which states: “At no time may a single-seater be driven slowly in an unnecessary, incorrect manner or in any potentially dangerous manner for other drivers or any other person”.
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