“What Changed After Last Year’s Abu Dhabi Controversy?”: British Journalist Slams FIA for Inconsistency Despite Michael Masi’s Departure

British F1 Journalist Chris Medland slammed the FIA after the governing body made back-to-back errors in Japan as well as the United States Grand Prix. The heat from the Briton has come right after the FIA handed Alpine a penalty which, many believe, was unfair. Medland further writes on this.

The freelance F1 journalist has criticized the race directors and their role in handling such situations. Moreover, Medland has also brought in the Michael Masi example as race direction errors haven’t gone from the sport even after his dismissal.

Talking about this, Medland wrote in a report published by Motorsport Magazine, “What changed after last year’s Abu Dhabi controversy? Michael Masi lost his F1 race director role for inconsistently applying the rules, but Alpine’s US GP penalty shows the FIA hasn’t solved the problem.”

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Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was handed over a penalty for losing his mirror during the race. Alonso’s mirror broke long after he had a big shunt with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on Lap 21 of the Austin race. Despite hitting Stroll and going down the order, the Spaniard reached P7 but unfortunately had to settle for P15 after the 30 seconds penalty was applied.

Although the FIA has now reversed Alonso’s penalty, giving him his P7 finish back, it seems the damage is already done.

FIA has made a series of errors in various F1 races, believes Medland

The time penalty that moved Alonso from P7 to P15 was deemed unfair and harsh. On top of that, Perez, who ran some laps with a damaged front wing, got away without a penalty.

Haas F1 team filed a complaint on the radio against Alonso as their driver Kevin Magnussen was shown a black and orange flag in Singapore. He had to return to the pits immediately to fix the issue under the same circumstances.

Moreover, Medland also mentioned the Pierre Gasly and recovery truck situation in Japan, which shocked the drivers as well as fans. Writing about this, he further shared in the report, “The FIA admitted that mistakes were made.”

“Race control missed Gasly making his pitstop and so hadn’t noticed he would be catching the pack up at speed, while it had also followed a protocol of deploying recovery vehicles in conditions that were not suitable,” concluded the British F1 personality.

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In addition, FIA penalized Gasly for speeding under a Red Flag. This was another incident that didn’t really sit well with the fans.