Fernando Alonso referred to Formula One stewards after hitting out at ‘incompetence’ from ‘unfair’ race organisers FIA

Fernando Alonso has accused the Formula One’s governing body of “incompetence” and has appeared to take a swipe at new race director Niels Freitas for a lack of knowledge.

The Alpine driver was speaking ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, before the first practice session on Friday in Barcelona.

Alonso hit out at the FIA’s handling of the Miami Grand Prix two weeks ago, and hinted at other problems.

The criticism comes after last season’s controversial finale, which saw race director Michael Masi leave his role amid a number of reforms.

Alonso received a penalty of five seconds in America despite his team’s protestations that he had not gained any advantage from cutting across a chicane and then slowing down.

“We believe it was very unfair and incompetence from the stewards,” Alonso said.

“They were not very professional. I missed one corner and gave back the time. They saw the pink colour [for fastest] on the next sector and took it without asking for proof.

“We arrived back with the proofs and they were packing up, not even in the room. We showed them the data and they found themselves with their hands tied because they had already issued the penalty. It was very bad. It is something that should not happen in F1 with the professionalism and the standards F1 has right now.”

He continued to suggest more improvements were required, mentioning some problems with Freitas, who has been race director for the first five races this campaign.

“We saw a couple of things already that showed we still need to improve a lot,” he stated.

“You need to have some knowledge about racing before being a race director or trying to monitor a race and I don’t think that knowledge is in place at the moment.

“There is a new race director here. [Eduardo] Freitas has a lot more experience at the World Endurance Championship and the top level and that will already improve things.

“Even the accident we had in Miami with Carlos and Esteban, we pushed to have some barriers there and nobody did anything. When you don’t have that knowledge of racing, it is difficult to talk.”

Alonso continued: “We just need to keep improving that we are the only ones driving the cars and experiencing the crashes and when we feel something is needed, we should be listened to.

“In Miami and some other examples we didn’t have that because it seems the focus is in another place.”