F1 champion trolls FIA over drivers cutting corners

Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso has trolled the sport's governing body the FIA, suggesting that they will only change a rule if he does something wrong.

Alonso was left audibly frustrated at the Mexican Grand Prix when several of the front runners cut the corner at turns one, two and three section of the track, even suggesting on team radio that he would overtake a Williams ahead of him by simply cutting the corner.

He was referring to the fact that both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc cut the corner on lap one, and were not given a penalty for it, while Alonso's old nemesis Lewis Hamilton did get a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage during a later battle with Verstappen.

Speaking ahead of the Brazilian GP, Alonso has suggested that there used to be a similar problem with the Russian GP in Sochi, and claimed that the FIA only changed the rule once he had benefitted from cutting the corner.

"The FIA ​​will only change it if I do," he said in the official FIA press conference in Brazil. "I tried to get them to change it many times in Sochi, and I asked them why the drivers didn't take that corner in Sochi but did take the one in Baku or Monaco. There was never a problem at the first corner in Monaco. But in Sochi, everyone cut the corner.

"One year, I simply didn't brake at the first corner, and I got into third place coming out of that corner. And the following year, it wasn't allowed anymore.

"So yes, I suppose it will change (in Mexico) for 2027, because if I do it in 2026, they'll change it for 2027," the Spaniard concluded, in a rather cheeky troll of F1's governing body.

Will changes be made to the Mexican GP?

After the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Sky Sports F1's Karun Chandhok took to social media to show exactly the problem with the opening section of corners in Mexico, and how the circuit could try and fix it.

Speaking through the proposed changes on the F1 Show later, Chandhok's colleagues seemed to agree with him, including broadcasting legend Martin Brundle, who suggested that giving drivers drive-through penalties would also stop them from cutting the corners.

Hamilton was certainly left bereft at the decision to give him a penalty but none of his competitors, slamming a lack of 'clarity' and 'transparency' in the decision-making processes.

Time will tell as to whether or not the FIA and F1 will enforce changes to the Mexican GP circuit.

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