When is an infraction not subject to penalty? For the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, it’s when previous transgressions were not sanctioned as well. That’s the message the Formula 1 governing body effectively sent after it reversed an earlier decision to strip Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso of a podium finish in the Saudi Grand Prix. Simply put, he failed to properly serve a five-second penalty for not having lined up at the starting grid in accordance with regulations.
Confused? Well, you’re not alone. Even fans who dutifully followed the race saw themselves hard-pressed to understand how Murphy’s Law seemed to inject itself repeatedly from the get-go insofar as Alonso’s bid was concerned. First, he lined up wrongly in his second-place slot prior to the beginning sequence; the left tires of his AMR23 crossed the limit as marked. Then, when he was serving the five-second penalty for the mistake during a pit stop in the 18th lap, a rear jack evidently “touched” his car — which officials interpreted as “working” on the car, necessitating another penalty.
Which should have been well and good. Unfortunately, race stewards saw fit to declare a review of Alonso’s pit stop in the last of the 50-lap race. By that time, the veteran driver was well on his way to a third-place finish, which he then formally celebrated prior to being stripped of it; the additional 10-second penalty actually came close — make that three-tenths of a second close — to relegating him to fifth.
Needless to say, Aston Martin protested the outcome. And in the exercise of its right to take arbitrators to task, it came with evidence that other similarly situated cars were not hitherto penalized for having “touched” a piece of equipment. And so the powers that be had to do yet another about face. Unfortunately, the process took too long for comfort, thus adding to the discomfiture of all and sundry.
Governance problems are not new to Formula One, as the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that decided the 2021 Drivers Championship proved only too well. That said, there has been a reasonable assumption that things would be better — much, much better — moving forward. After all, rules now require real-time reviews of potentially significant incidents by race control and the Remote Operations Center. Clearly, though, there is still much that needs to be done — and the FIA would do well to act decisively. There are only so many blows it can take before it finds its credibility shot for good.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, oprerations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
