Stroll and Alonso, continuous penalties
The Aston Martin team returned home rather dissatisfied after the outcome of the Chinese GP. To make the team principal angry Mike Krack it wasn't so much the result of the track, with seventh place for Fernando Alonso and 15th, well away from the points, for Lance Stroll, but rather the decisions taken over the weekend by the commissioners against its two pilots. The Asturian was penalized in the Sprint race for a contact caused by Carlos Sainz, while the Canadian ended up under the magnifying glass of the stewards for having rear-ended Daniel Ricciardo under the Safety Car in Sunday's GP.
Regardless of the time penalties suffered in the race, the most worrying situation for Alonso and Stroll at the moment concerns the number of penalty points collected in the last 12 months: the Asturian is at six – all received this season, however – while Stroll is at seven. If the figure of 12 is reached, the automatic disqualification for a Grand Prix. Since this sort of points-based license has existed, a situation like this has never occurred, but Krack now fears for its two drivers and in particular for Alonso, who will not have any points to 'discard' for the whole of 2024.
Krack's anger
Krack, as reported by the site Pit Debriefcomplained about what – in his opinion – is a poor consistency of stewards from one match to another: “The stewards have been tough on Fernando and Lance recently – commented the Luxembourg manager – we also saw it this weekend. It happened on Sunday, it happened in the sprint race and it happened in Melbourne.”. The penalty imposed on Lance Stroll seemed obvious to many insiders, but Krack disagrees and cited as an example the controversial precedent in Melbourne, in which Alonso was sanctioned.
“There was a very quick and severe verdict against Lance – declared the Aston Martin team principal – everyone can see it however they want, but the last time it was the car in front that received the penalty. In Melbourne, if you remember even though there was no contact. This time the car behind was punished. Lance was sent into a spin on the first lap in Bahrain (from Hulkenberg, ed.) but there was no penalty there for whoever caused the collision“.
“Six penalty points already for Alonso? Yes, at this rate it would be difficult to finish the season – Krack concluded bitterly – I tried to ask for explanations and no one told me anything. Lance also received two penalty points on Sunday. So, at the moment, we are accumulating a large number of penalty points“.
#Penalties #Stroll #Alonso #Aston #Martin #angry
