13/05/2024
NEWS STORY
In his pursuit of a review of driving standards guidelines, Fernando Alonso claims that he has the full support of FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem.
It isn't only the Spaniard who has been hit with some questionable penalties in recent times, with drivers, team boss and fans all feeling that there is an increasing lack of consistency.
Alonso was particularly irked when no further action was taken over Lewis Hamilton following the first corner incident during the Miami Sprint while the Spaniard was penalised for incidents in both the Australian Grand Prix and the Shanghai Sprint.
In Melbourne Alonso had 20s added to his elapsed time (and 3 penalty points) for "potentially dangerous" driving, which led to the clash with George Russell, while in China he was hit with another 10s time penalty (and a further 3 penalty points) for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz.
While the Miami stewards felt that the first corner incident began with the two Aston Martin drivers, "the sudden and fast arrival of Car 44 (Hamilton) contributed to the various collisions". However, the stewards were not able to identify one or more drivers wholly or predominantly to blame for the various collisions or any one of them, consequently no further action was taken.
This led to Alonso claiming an anti-Spanish bias among the stewards, the two-time world champion insisting that the Mercedes driver escape punishment because he is not Spanish.
Over the Miami weekend Alonso spoke at length to the FIA president, and came away feeling that he has his support.
"I spoke with him and he's always on board on every opinion that the drivers have," said the Spaniard. "He has always listened to us," he added. "He knows that we are the ones driving the cars and that we can have some suggestions on things.
"There are a couple of points that we need to address as a sport, so let's see if we make F1 a better sport and a little bit more consistent."
The FIA is understood to be working on a new set of driver guidelines with preliminary talks having already taken place with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA) - essentially the F1 drivers' union - over such things as track limits, overtaking and defensive driving, all of which have led to controversial decisions in the past.
As the stewards continue to crack down on some offences, with time penalties becoming more and more common, the likes of (Aston Martin team boss) Mike Krack welcome the move as long as there is consistency.
"There's two elements," he said. "One is obviously we want consistent judgements. But on the other hand we've also introduced new guidelines for this season and sometimes maybe we get stuck in the way we've been driving before.
"Sometimes you think they should be more consistent, but depending on which end you are, obviously there's a different interpretation of consistency.
"I think everybody wants consistency," he added. "Everybody should look over the guidelines, including ourselves, and then we take a fresh start."
It is hoped that the new guidelines will be in place for the start of the 2025 season.