In light of criticism from team manager Otmar Szafnauer, Fernando Alonso was given a five-second time penalty for his Interlagos collision with Alpine Formula 1 teammate Esteban Ocon.
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On the first lap of the 24-lap sprint race on Saturday in Brazil, Alonso and Ocon appeared to collide twice, the first time at Turn 4 when they were side-by-side entering the corner. The more spectacular collision occurred as they crossed the start/finish line at the end of the lap, forcing Alonso wide at the corner’s exit. When Alonso’s front wing made contact with Ocon’s right rear wheel, it suffered damage. Alonso was forced to pit for repairs and responded angrily, saying over the radio, “I lost the front wing owing to our friend.”
After hearing from both drivers and confirming that they would be looking into the main straight incident after the sprint race, the stewards determined that Alonso was at fault and assessed him a five-second time penalty. Due to the tow and some aerodynamic harm that Ocon sustained at Turn 4, Alonso was “much faster.” Alonso admitted, according to the stewards, that he “slightly misjudged the time to pull out and struck Ocon from behind, his front wing striking Ocon’s rear tyre” during the hearing. “The Stewards decided that Alonso was entirely at fault for the incident, which at those speeds and at that location on the circuit was unsafe,” the FIA announcement continued.
After the sprint race, team principal Szafnauer remained silent about the incident but criticised both Alpine drivers in the team’s press release on Saturday night for wasting high starting positions in the tight race with McLaren for P4. By preventing on-track incidents and jeopardising the performance of the entire team, “both Esteban and Fernando must do a better job to complement the tremendous work of everyone in the squad,” stated Szafnauer.
