Wow what a bull **** penalty for Fernando Alonso. I honestly thought he brake checked George Russell like Verstappen did to Hamilton, but that's not the case at all. Yes, he played with the throttle but there's absolutely nothing to suggest that he was driving dangerously. George did not pay attention and he paid the price.
Remember Saudi 2021 when Verstappen very deliberately brake checked a rival halfway down a DRS straight, got hit by the car behind and
only got +10 seconds?
And on this same weekend an F3 driver swerved into another car in a practice session, putting them in the wall, only getting a +3 place grid drop...
And how in Bahrain F3, Luke Browning was given +10 seconds for overtaking off the track when the car on the inside was allowed to just drive to the outside of the track so it was impossible for the car in the outside to not be off track?
These penalties are so inconsistent in their harshness and how they appoint blame, it's no wonder people are angry at every penalty. Realistically, a penalty should only ever be annoying if it is applied to the driver you are supporting. But this Alonso one sets a crazy precedent.
Australia 2024 - slow down to guarantee you make the corner: 20s penalty.
Sao Paulo 2022 - don't bother and send it in with no intention of making the corner: no penalty.
Now don't get me wrong, I am fully in support of penalising misdemeanors, and using harsh penalties as a deterrent, but we are penalising the wrong thing here by a country mile. Alonso was clever and within the rules, and Russell bottled it. Now, if Alonso's supposed "throttle issue" he went on to do after was not genuine and him trying to cover up his actions, then we have a Hamilton @ Australia 2009 liegate kind of thing which is not on, but the stewards decided to not even look there.
The biggest thing we need from the Russell crash is to Clamp down on effing speeding under yellow flags. Turn 6 is a fast blind corner and we have had too many close calls there, it's the new Raidillon. The VSC was the right call in that situation (calls for a Red Flag that close to the end of the race was overkill), but because the drivers follow a time delta, they still fly past the corner quickly. Under a VSC or Safety Car, the drivers are supposed to go through any Double Yellow flag zones at Pit Speed limit speeds, this was a rule clarified halfway through the last season and has never been enforced. Not slowing for yellows properly and safely is the biggest problem in the sport, which I have explained many times recently, because there is no penalty for not slowing except maybe crashing into something dangerous they didn't slow for. Get rid of the VSC and bring in FCY. A Safety Car situation should be "FCY" called instantly, which then becomes Safety Car when the leader goes down the start straight to be collected by it. FCY forces all drivers to slow to Pit Speed in WEC and F1 needs to adopt this.
