Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi criticises Fernando Alonso’s second time penalty in Miami and believes the team could have successfully argued against it
Fernando Alonso finished ninth in the Miami Grand Prix after receiving a five-second time penalty for a collision with Pierre Gasly earlier in the race. But race stewards handed out another five-second penalty and Alonso dropped out of the points.
The reason: on lap 53, the Alpine driver cut the chicane at turn 14, allowing him to pull further away from Mick Schumacher and out of the Haas driver’s DRS range. Because Alonso had gained a permanent advantage, race officials were forced to issue a second penalty.
In a statement Alpine released on social media on Wednesday, CEO Laurent Rossi criticised the decision and claimed Alonso had given Schumacher time back on the same lap. However, he said the team had not been able to clarify that.
“A disappointing penalty for Fernando after the race. Because he left the track and got an advantage, our six points at the finish turned into four and that cost us a deserved double points win,” said Rossi.
“It’s certainly difficult to accept because Fernando gave the time back during the lap and we weren’t able to provide the evidence to clarify the particular situation before the penalty was given. We are very confident that Fernando would have kept his ninth place otherwise. “
A message from @Laurent_Rossi, CEO Alpine: “The Miami Grand Prix weekend did not disappoint and it was great to experience a new event with such a vibrant atmosphere.
(1/6) pic.twitter.com/Vj668CAhGv– BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) May 11, 2022
With Barcelona in mind, Rossi promises, “We’ll give it our all again next weekend in Spain and are determined to have a much better and fairer race weekend and demonstrate the true potential of our package.”
Alonso’s penalty put Williams driver Alex Albon ninth and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin tenth, just a tenth of a second behind. For Alonso, it was the fourth race in a row in which he failed to score points. The Spaniard was already lamenting his bad luck so far this year.
After the race in Miami, the Alpine driver said that there were “no presents” and “still no lucky points, but hopefully that will come one day”. The only time Alonso has scored points so far was at the season opener in Bahrain, where he finished ninth. Team-mate Esteban Ocon finished in the points a total of four times.