The dispute between Fernando Alonso and the governing body over the 10-second penalty at the end of the 2023 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which was later removed, was not the only controversy that arose in a fairly uneventful Jeddah race. In fact, after the retirement of Lance Stroll, which took place on lap 18 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the FIA surprisingly decided to send the Safety Car out on track, despite the Canadian having parked his car in a fairly safe spot. The decision taken by the FIA surprised many, but the governing body justified that Canadian’s position at the time of his retirement was not clear. For this reason, deploying Safety was the most conservative option.
The FIA explains the entry of the Safety Car in the Jeddah GP
As Autosport reports: “From the initial angles of the available cameras, the exact position of the stopped car (Stroll) was not clear. So the safety car has been deployed as a safer option.” The reason for the introduction of the Safety Car would therefore be attributed to the impossibility of exactly determining Lance Stroll’s position at the time of his retirement.
According to the federation, the angles of the cameras available when the Canadian parked his Aston Martin were not suitable for establishing where on the track the driver was. The decision was met with disapproval by some teams. Usually the Virtual Safety Car option for cases like these is the one that is used the most. But that was not the case in Jeddah, with the FIA preferring to play it safe, which in Saudi Arabia penalized above all Scuderia Ferrari, as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had pitted just a few moments prior to the Lance Stroll’s issue.
The moment the Safety Car left the track actually determined the overall outcome of the race: in fact, the two SF-23 cars came out behind Max Verstappen at the time of the pitstop, with Charles Leclerc even behind Lewis Hamilton. From then on, the show was mainly provided by the fight for the fastest lap between the two Red Bull cars, with Max Verstappen managing to set the best time on the last lap of the race. However, doubts about an increasingly questionable race direction by the federation remain.
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The management of Fernando Alonso’s case after the race is also questionable. The Spaniard received a 10 second penalty following the podium ceremony for not serving the 5 seconds correctly in the pits. However, the federation never warned the Spaniard in the following 31 laps. This sent the ex-Ferrari man into a rage, with the Spaniard lashing out heavily at the FIA. It is also incomprehensible why many penalties are given without evaluating the cases carefully, often ending up making a bad impression like yesterday.
