Fernando Alonso believes a punishment he received in the United States Grand Prix raises concerns about the sport’s direction under governing authority the FIA.
The Alpine team’s protest against the decision to demote Alonso out of the pts after he completed seventh in a wrecked vehicle will be heard on Thursday.
“It is an essential day for the sport as this ruling will dictate if we are moving in the right direction,” Alonso wrote on Instagram.
Alonso stated that he made the post in response to messages of support received since the penalty.
“It’s one of those rare moments in sport where I feel we’re all on the same page and have the same opinion toward certain rules and regulations,” he said, thanking those who had approached him via social media.
After the race, Alonso stated that his drive was one of the greatest of his career after he crashed at 180mph, his car did a wheelie, slammed a wall. Despite damaged aerodynamic parts he pitted for a new front wing, resumed at the back and climbed to seventh.
The FIA’s management of F1 has been criticized this year, and the US Grand Prix was the race after the regulatory body enraged drivers by letting a recovery vehicle on track in poor visibility all through heavy rain.
Alpine’s plea will be heard on October 27 at 18:00 Mexico City time (12:00 BST), prior to this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The squad has questioned the action of the US GP stewards to permit the Haas team’s protest irrespective of the fact that it was posted after the allowable time limit had elapsed.
The stewards stated in their judgment to penalize Alonso by 30 seconds on Sunday that the Spaniard’s car was dangerous because he drove it for a lengthy time with a damaged wing mirror and then eventually with none after it fell off.
Despite Haas’s requests to race control, Alpine was never asked to pit the car as well as discard the mirror during the race.
The stewards’ decision implies that any car lacking a rear-view mirror following an incident will be compelled to retire in the future.
Also there are concerns about the uniformity of decision-making, following the rejection of a similar protest by Haas against Sergio Perez’s Red Bull by stewards.
Perez ran a few laps with a punctured front wing, a portion of which fell off the car as he driving.
