Alfa Romeo petition FIA to review Kimi Raikkonen penalty at Imola

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo petition FIA to review Raikkonen penalty at Imola

Penalty cost Raikkonen points-scoring position

Ian Parkes

Saturday 1 May 2021 14:41

Alfa Romeo has submitted to the FIA a petition for a review of the penalty collected by Kimi Raikkonen in Imola that cost the team a vital points-scoring position.

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, prompting some confusion as to the exact reasoning for the punishment that could prove crucial in the constructors' standings at the end of the season given the finances involved.

Article continues under video

Post-race, Alfa Romeo head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar cited a delay in communication between the team and the FIA as the main contributing factor towards the penalty.

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

"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.

"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."

The stewards stated after a hearing there were 'contradictory' instructions, but they ultimately had to adhere to the regulations when applying a penalty.

Alfa Romeo believes there is sufficient evidence to suggest a review is warranted, with a discussion scheduled to take place post-qualifying with the stewards as to whether it can proceed.