Alonso Warns FIA’s Decision on Alpine’s Protest Will Impact F1’s Future

Fernando Alonso warned that the FIA’s decision on Alpine’s protest would have implications on Formula One’s future. 

The Spaniard was dealt a post-race penalty stemming from a Haas protest that dropped him from a seventh-place finish to 15th at the U.S. Grand Prix this weekend. Despite being sent airborne from a collision with future teammate Lance Stroll, Alonso was able to finish the race, but his car was damaged. His right-wing mirror ended up falling off his car several laps later. 

Haas filed a protest after the race about how he drove an unsafe vehicle, and the FIA then agreed despite Alonso not being shown a black and orange flag during the race. On three different instances this year, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen has been shown this, which means a driver must come to the pits to repair the car. 

Alpine responded by filing a protest of its own in regard to the admissibility of Haas’s protest. According to the Renault-owned team, it was filed 24 minutes past the deadline, adding in a Twitter thread, “The FIA has the right to black and orange flag a car during the race if they consider it unsafe and, on this occasion, they assessed the car and decided not to action the flag. Moreover, after the race, the FIA technical delegate considered the car legal.” The teams will meet with the stewards on Thursday ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Alonso posted the following message on his Instagram story Monday night after thanking fans: “It’s one of those rare times in sport, that I feel we are all on the same page and share the same opinion towards rules and regulations. Therefore, Thursday is an important day for the sport that we love so much, as this decision will dictate if we are going in the right direction for the future.”

In their decision, the stewards did acknowledge that Haas’s protest was filed past the deadline, saying that “compliance with the deadline was not possible in this case and that the Protest was admissible.” 

This is not the first time Alonso has questioned the governing body’s stewards. Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, he mentioned moments at Miami where the stewards “were not very professional” and accused them of “incompetence.”