F1 | The FIA ​​explains why it rejected the Aston Martin review

Fernando Alonso received a 10-second penalty in the sprint in China after a close contact with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, which the Spaniard was unable to serve by retiring with a puncture.

Alonso, who also received a three-point penalty on his licence, said he did not understand why he was penalized for what he believed was a racing incident.

Last week, Aston Martin decided to ask for a right of review, which involves the submission of significant, relevant and new evidence that was to be assessed by stewards on Friday morning in Miami.

During the hearing, in which both Aston Martin and Ferrari participated, the stewards did not consider that the evidence provided by the Silverstone team met these three criteria and therefore the matter will not be reopened further.

Aston Martin had provided images of the accident from the perspective of Alonso’s car, which were not available to the stewards when they made their decision during the Sprint.

However, whilst recognizing that the new footage was clearly new evidence relevant to the incident, the stewards considered that it was not significant, as they had enough alternative footage available to make a decision and the new camera angles would not have changed their decision-making process.

“The alleged new item presented was onboard footage of car 14 which was not available to Aston Martin and the stewards at the time of the original decision – it was downloaded by F1 after the Sprint,” the stewards said.

“The stewards had several other shots of the crash from different angles, but did not have this footage. In its written request for a review, Aston Martin suggested that the new camera angle demonstrated that the crash in question was a racing accident and not an accident for which its driver should have been penalised”.

The statement goes on to conclude that: “Although we did not have this footage at the time of our decision, we did not consider the footage to be a ‘significant’ new element.”

“The new footage would not have made us question our decision or given us a perspective we didn’t already have of the incident. There was enough footage from other angles to give us a clear basis for making decisions.”

According to Motorsport.com, the decision was communicated to Aston Martin on Friday, but as all stewards for the Chinese Grand Prix had to sign and not all were available in time, the publication of the verdict was delayed.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, in Parc Ferme after the Sprint

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Speaking after the Shanghai crash, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said frequent penalties for its drivers, while other crashes went unpunished, had started to feel “not fair”.

Alonso went further in Miami after being involved in a collision at the start in the Sprint, suggesting that Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton avoided a penalty for the incident because he is “not Spanish”.

Alonso then explained that he wanted to raise the issue of the fair application of penalties with the FIA.