Alonso on the podium, but then he’s 4th: “A bad figure for the FIA, but that’s okay”

The Spaniard was relegated for having served a penalty under the Safety Car: “There was plenty of time in the race to communicate the second penalty.” Russell: “He deserved third place”

Mario Salvini

March 19, 2023 ( edit March 19, 2023 | 10:46 pm)

– jeddah (Arabia)

“It’s not my podium, this podium belongs to Fernando”. George Russell has the intellectual honesty and kindness not to boast too much of a result that surprises him in the almanacs. Physically, Fernando Alonso had gone to celebrate the champagne placement shortly before, actually third at the finish line. Who subsequently, made aware of the relegation due to a penalty, commented: “Well, at least I enjoyed the celebration”. As if he took it sportingly. In reality he then added something, it wouldn’t have been Alonso, otherwise: “The FIA ​​made a bad impression. There was plenty of time in the race to communicate the further penalty. The public didn’t deserve such a show”. In the end however, despite everything he smiled, “after all there are only three points of difference”, he said.

position in the cockpit

The hundredth podium is skipped. But with Aston Martin finding himself he will get it back soon. Of course, team principal Mike Krack and him have something to reproach themselves with, because the rule is clear. Fernando had positioned himself badly in the pitch at the start. There is clearly a problem, given that the same thing happened to Ocon in Bahrain. The position in the cockpit makes the task difficult for the pilots. At the start of the race, the 5” penalty was promptly communicated. Alonso discounted it in the pit. The problem is that at that moment there was the safety car: apparently a fortune, in fact a rip-off, because the regulation prohibits serving penalties in that actually advantageous situation. The commissioners doubled the sentence. Communicating it to the driver after the podium.

incredulous russell

George incredulous And so third place went to the incredulous Russell. “I would have also been happy with fourth, ahead of the Ferraris (and teammate Lewis Hamilton, not secondary, ed), which is quite surprising. We went beyond the car’s potential. We couldn’t have done more. If we had had the developments that we are preparing we would have gone better, and that is what we will do in the future. Because we don’t want to fight with Ferrari, we want to fight with Red Bull. Red Bull which is now really too far ahead. It was from that of Mercedes in 2014 that not you could see a domain like this”.



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