F1 2023

Fernando Alonso's joy has turned to heartbreak in an instant in Jeddah on Monday morning (AEDT) after being stripped of his 100th podium finish for failing ...

While the stewards’ decision was made on the basis that the teams had previously agreed that “no part of the car could be touched while a penalty was being served as this would constitute working on the car,” Aston Martin claimed in their appeal that this was incorrect, and that simply touching the car of itself, including with a jack, did not constitute “working” on the car for the purposes of the Sporting Regulations. Teams have a a right of review of sporting decisions, and a clearly agitated Aston Martin submitted a letter to the stewards appealing the decision to give Alonso the additional 10-second penalty. With a similar incident happening to Alpine’s Estaban Ocon in Bahrain in the first race of the season, the precedent had been well established for Alonso to be handed an additional 10-second time penalty, dropping him from P3 to P4. The pace of the Aston Martin kept Alonso in a strong position for the rest of the race, coming home third behind a victorious Sergio Perez, as well as a surging Max Verstappen who charged from 15th on the grid to second. It was, however, short-lived, with Alonso handed a 5-second time penalty for lining up outside of his grid box, ending up about half a tyre’s width to the left of his P2 spot. The F1 world is in a frenzy after Fernando Alonso had his milestone 100th podium stripped from him, only to have it returned to him on appeal.