Fernando Alonso has labelled Formula 1’s current state as “overregulated”, voicing frustration with the stewards handling of penalty points.
Drivers are often handed penalty points following an on-track incident with another driver, with any competitor issued with 12 in 12 months handed an automatic race ban.
Alonso outlined the stewards are mixing up dangerous driving with racing mistakes and asserted penalty points are unjustified in many instances, including his clash with Zhou Guanyu in Austria.
F1’s penalty points system was first introduced in 2014, however, no driver has ever reached the 12 points required for a suspension.
Alonso pointed to a previous incident in the past that warranted a ban as an example.
“I think what I said now is we try to prevent dangerous drivers taking penalties every two or three weekends and putting people in danger,” Alonso told media including RacingNews365.
“In the past, think this was back when [Romain] Grosjean had the accident in Spa with Lewis and myself involved [in 2012], and maybe it was a race ban in Monza that year.”
Alonso feels drivers 'cannot do anything'
Alonso added there are too many rules in place in F1 and is seeking intervention from the FIA to backtrack on an “overregulated” sport.
“Now I think we never had so many rules as we have now we cannot overtake on the pit lane, we cannot go fast on the pit lane, we cannot go slow on track, we cannot do basically anything," he said.
“This is probably overregulated and drivers we see or we feel frustrated sometimes, teams as well, but we need to find a solution between all of us, we cannot leave the FIA alone on this.
“We need to propose something that is better than the current rule. And this is something that we need to do between all of us.”
Alonso’s sentiment is shared by three-time champion Max Verstappen.
“Look at already the rulebook from 10 years or 15 years ago to now just keeps on growing,” said the Dutchman.
“So that’s obviously the world that we live in.”
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