Alfa Romeo appeal for Raikkonen points dismissed

Alfa Romeo’s appeal against the penalty handed out to Kimi Raikkonen in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix has been dismissed by the stewards following the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Raikkonen finished ninth originally but was hit by a stop-and-go penalty that equated to 30 seconds of race time for an issue relating to the order behind the safety car ahead of a rolling race restart. Although the team was able to successfully argue that the stewards had wrongly stated the penalty was necessary to ensure the consistent application of the rules, a subsequent hearing on Sunday proved unsuccessful.

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Alfa Romeo provided a representative to the stewards for a virtual meeting at 11:00 a.m. local time in Portugal but a few hours after the finish of the race at Portimao, the call to have the penalty overturned was rejected. In announcing the decision, the stewards confirmed that there were contradictory regulations and ambiguities but that they were right to stick with the mandatory penalty for the incident as it played out.

“The mandatory penalties that are in the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations are specifically intended to take discretion regarding penalties out of the hands of the Stewards, even or specifically when the Stewards find mitigating circumstances. The competitors are a part of writing these regulations.

“Therefore, the Stewards re-affirm their decision and issue a ten second stop-and-go penalty, which as it was assessed after the race is converted to a 30 second time penalty in accordance with Art. 38.2 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.”