FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting has moved to deny claims that race stewards waited too long before handing out Fernando Alonso’s drive-through penalty at Silverstone. The Englishman has also revealed that he warned the Maranello team on no less than three occasions before the punishment was handed out.
The matter goes back to half an hour into the British Grand Prix, when Alonso overtook Robert Kubica’s Renault by cutting the apex of Club Corner. With the former double Champion having argued that he had no option but to avoid the Pole’s car, Whiting has now made public the fact that he cautioned Ferrari about a penalty.
“I warned Ferrari three times that it would be better to put things right with Kubica,” he explained to Italian publication Autosprint, having suggested that Alonso should hand the position back to his good friend.
“The first time I radioed in immediately, just after Alonso passed Kubica; I said that, if Fernando gave the position back to Robert, the stewards would not have to intervene. But Ferrari did not comply. In the third statement I noted that Kubica was now too far back to reverse the places.”
With this matter following Alonso’s Valencia comments, which described the European Grand Prix as ‘manipulated’ with regards to the Lewis Hamilton Safety Car pass, Whiting stresses that the decision-makers are continuing to act fairly.
“It is absolutely not true that the stewards took a long time before deciding on the drive-through penalty for Alonso,” he emphasised, “and it came for an undeniable advantage by cutting the corner.”
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