Alonso mea culpa on FIA incompetence tirade

Fernando Alonso

Alonso mea culpa on FIA incompetence tirade

Alonso launched an astonishing attack ahead of the Spanish GP

Ewan Gale

Monday 23 May 2022 19:10 Updated: 13:31

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Fernando Alonso has apologised to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem for calling the Miami race stewards "incompetent".

The two-time F1 champion has also suggested he can now "do things differently" moving forward.

Alonso was scathing in his criticism after he was unable to provide evidence against a five-second time penalty at the Miami Grand Prix due to the stewards packing up to leave as Alpine arrived with proof to exonerate its driver.

The Spaniard was then given two warnings during his home race in Spain on Sunday.

Asked if new race director Eduardo Freitas and his stewards were 'behaving themselves', Alonso joked: "It was good!

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"Even though they said I made two mistakes and ran wide in turn 12, I said I cannot get another one because that could be bad.

"Reflecting from Miami and Thursday here, maybe I see it in a different way now.

"They did their job in Miami and we see things differently from the car in the heat of the moment so we all work together to improve the show.

"[Sunday] for example, the fans saw a super race and we are all here to help that, to improve the show."

Alonso was spotted in discussion with president Ben Sulayem across the weekend in Montmélo and after revealing he had apologised during the talks, he explained: "I am a very good friend of Mohammed.

"I have a lot of trust personally in Mohammed in how he has handled the FIA and all the changes he is making and all the things he wants to improve.

"As I said, I fully support everything he is doing and his ideas. We were talking about Miami and generally the year and how it has been.

"Hearing from them, I can see their point and see that I can do things differently as well."

Asked if he had apologised to the stewards, Alonso replied: "Yeah, yeah. To Mohammed especially."

Additional reporting by Sam Hall