Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has expressed disagreement with the demands of Red Bull’s disqualification from the 2021 Formula 1 World Championships. The Spaniard has argued that the same rules didn’t apply to Ferrari, who had a suspected illegal engine in 2019 which was made to change after a few races in the season.
Red Bull has been found guilty of a ‘minor’ budget cap breach which is reported of being less than $7.25 million. Whereas in 2019 Ferrari reached a secret agreement with the FIA after an investigation into their fuel-flow system and later avoided any significant punishments.
“It’s difficult to know without having all the info,” Alonso said during a media interaction ahead of the 2022 US Grand Prix. “Ferrari won two races in 2019 I think, with something that we all know was not legal and nothing happened, they kept those wins, so it’s quite a maze.”
Alonso was also a driver for the Prancing Horse for five seasons and came close to adding two more world titles but was defeated twice by Sebastian Vettel, who was one of Ferrari’s drivers in the 2019 season. When asked if there should be another set of circumstances regarding race wins compared to championships. “Imagine they won the championship in 2019 with that engine,” Alonso added. “It is very difficult and I think we need to rely on the people that have the power and trust them.”
However, Alonso didn’t completely leave out Red Bull. Instead, the Alpine driver congratulated them for finding loopholes within the financial regulations. “Well they’re world champions, they pushed the grey areas,” Alonso said.
“I don’t remember many years where a team that won the championship wasn’t exploiting something that other teams were surprised at. So from Brawn GP to Red Bull 2012, I don’t remember Mercedes but to have a domination like they did, for sure the team was learning things that they thought at the beginning weren’t possible.”
