Alonso seeks talks with FIA president to address anti-Spanish bias concern

Fernando Alonso is seeking talks with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem over what he feels is an 'anti-Spanish bias' in recent stewarding decisions.

Alonso's comments come after recent high-profile penalties were awarded against the Aston Martin driver, in Australia for the George Russell incident late on and in the Sprint in China, where he was awarded penalty points for a lunge on Carlos Sainz.

In Miami, Alonso was also caught up in a first corner incident with Lewis Hamilton during the sprint race, in which the Mercedes driver forced Alonso to hit team-mate Lance Stroll, with Lando Norris also taken out.

That incident was not investigated by the stewards, leading to Alonso to declare he was seeking talks with Ben Sulayem.

"I do feel that nationality matters," Alonso told media including RacingNews365.

"I will speak with Mohammed, with the FIA. I need to make sure that there is not anything wrong with my nationality or anything that can influence any decision. Not only for me, also for the future generation of Spanish drivers - they need to be protected."

'If I do that, for sure I get a penalty'

In the incident that has caught Alonso's ire, Hamilton came up the inside of him, knocking his Aston Martin into its sister car, which then sent Lando Norris' McLaren spinning into retirement.

The stewards investigated the matter following the sprint, but judged there was no further action to be taken with no single driver to be blamed, after Hamilton had been the focus of the review.

"I have to open the gap, because Hamilton was coming from the inside without control of the car," Alonso contended when he was reminded by RacingNews365 that he had predicted there would be no penalty just hours prior. "If I do that, for sure I get a penalty."

The Spanish driver could only qualify P15 for the Miami Grand Prix after what he called a "disappointing" session after set up changed that "probably didn't work as expected" between the sprint and the main qualifying hour.