Alfa Romeo blames FIA communication delay for Kimi Raikkonen's stripped points

Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Imola — Photo: © LAT Images

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Alfa Romeo blames FIA communication delay for Raikkonen's stripped points

Raikkonen was handed a 30-second penalty post race for a safety car infringement

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 19 April 2021 14:59

Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar has cited a delay in communication between the team and the FIA as the main contributing factor towards Kimi Raikkonen's points-stripping penalty.

Raikkonen had finished ninth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but was later handed a stop-go penalty, converted to a 30-second time penalty as it was post-race, for not regaining his position behind the safety car after a spin ahead of the red-flag restart.

The time penalty took away his second points finish at Imola in two races and with some confusion as to the exact reasoning for the punishment, Pujolar offered an explanation to the bizarre penalty.

"The only thing I can say is what happened on track and what we did," said Pujolar.

"Kimi went off behind the safety car and at that point, he lost positions. At that point, we said to recover the positions.

Article continues under video

"When we asked Kimi, also he was asking should we recover the positions, there was a bit of a question mark between whether it was a formation lap or whether we were behind the safety car and then we had some confusion."

On the discussion the team had with FIA race director Michael Masi, Pujolar added: "We asked for clarification from the FIA.

"Whilst we were waiting for the clarification and were waiting to standby, we got our answer too late so we stayed in the position that we were. After that, the result was we had the penalty, that is about it."

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Fernando Alonso opens up on 'hard mental place' as Aston Martin F1 nightmare continues

31 minutes ago

F1 deal sees Apple TV numbers TRIPLE

1 hour ago

F1 on Apple TV: 2026 Presenter lineup and how to watch the Chinese Grand Prix FREE

1 hour ago

F1 star Max Verstappen 'in talks' with FIA in showdown over new 2026 cars

2 hours ago

F1 2026 Chinese Grand Prix weather forecast - latest from Shanghai

2 hours ago

The incredible F1 record Michael Schumacher STILL holds at the Chinese Grand Prix