Miseries don’t seem to end for Fernando Alonso at Alpine. After securing P7 in the recently concluded United States Grand Prix at Austin after a valiant fight, he failed to keep that position. As FIA penalized the Spanish driver for having his mirror drop off on the track, Alonso moved from P7 to P15.

This situation, however, has an uncanny resemblance to the 2006 Monza race. Talking about this, F1 personality Martin Brundle shared on Sky Sports, “This reminds me of when Fernando did an outstanding job with a damaged car after a puncture in qualifying at Monza in 2006.”

“He was very dubiously penalized five grid places for ‘blocking’ Felipe Massa’s distant Ferrari at which point he angrily said he no longer considered F1 a sport. Sixteen years later he obviously still does, but the injustice feels about the same to me,” concluded the British international.

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FIA punished the Alpine driver after Haas protested against the dangerous carbon fiber mirror on the track which could have been dangerous for the drivers. The F1 governing body imposed a 30-second time penalty for Alonso, which ruined his brilliant fight from the back to the grid to the P7 finish.

What led to Fernando Alonso receiving such a harsh penalty?

The situation arose after Alonso got into a high-speed collision with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on Lap 22. Even though the Spaniard replaced his front wing in the pits, his damaged mirror was something that was left unnoticed. As Alonso came on track and was chasing other cars, dirty air coming out from behind the cars made the mirror loose before it eventually detached from the car.

Alonso, who was a serious contender for the driver of the day at Circuit of The Americas, had to swallow the bitter pill. Even though the penalty was deemed to be 10 seconds during the race, it was no longer feasible as the penalty came after the race as the post-race penalty.

As per the report published by FIA on this penalty, the stewards noted that they were “deeply concerned that Car 14 [Alonso] was not given the black and orange flag or at least a radio call to rectify the situation, despite… two calls to Race Control by the Haas Team.”

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“Notwithstanding the above, Article 3.2 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations is clear – a car must be in a safe condition throughout a race, and in this case, Car 14 was not. This is a responsibility of the Alpine Team.”