Fernando Alonso’s criticism about the fairness of F1 stewarding has been dismissed by FIA Formula 1 race director Michael Masi, who says the “rules are applied equally for everyone.”
This season, Alonso has been dissatisfied with the consistency of several race control decisions, particularly when it comes to drivers leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
He was angry when McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo passed him off the track in Austria, and he was perplexed when Lando Norris received only a reprimand for crossing the pit entry line in the Russian Grand Prix, which is otherwise subject to a time penalty.
“There are different rules for different people, or different, let’s say, talks the week after for different people,” the Alpine driver stated after Sochi.
“Let’s see, the next one that crosses the white line on the pit entry, let’s see which nationality he is and which penalty he will get.”
When race director Masi was asked about Alonso’s comments, he responded that the Spaniard was entitled to his opinion, but that the stewards were not biased.
“I don’t even engage in that side of it,” Masi said. “Every driver is entitled to their views and comments, either internally or to the media, and that’s fine.
“The rules are applied equally for everyone. We judge each and every incident, looking at the actual incident and what occurs.”
Masi denied that Alonso’s comments put any pressure on the stewards when asked by Motorsport.com.
“No, not at all,” he replied. “We are very fortunate that we have a very good group of stewards throughout the year. And no, I can tell you that does not place any additional pressure whatsoever on them.”
Alonso wasn’t the only driver who questioned the rules’ consistency, and the stewards received even more criticism in Turkey when AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was given a five-second penalty for striking Alonso at the start of the race in what appeared to be a typical lap 1 racing incident.
Despite this, Masi says he is confident in the current rotating stewards system, which he also explained why Gasly was penalized.
“Absolutely. As we’ve said before, the stewards are an independent judiciary to review anything, and that’s why they are independent to review it on that basis. They do look at everything, case by case,” he explained.
“Yes, you can sort of compare different types of incidents, let’s call it, but they are there to review each case with all of the information and data that they have available, and then ultimately make their decision.
“Each team is entitled to talk about consistency and so forth, but we have a general road of parameters, they are all well and truly aware of where those are.
“If there are things that aren’t quite right, we discuss them openly. And if we need to tweak them, we tweak them.”
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