Wait...Alonso Is On The Podium Again?

    

     It was a weird ending to the Saudi Arabia GP. While Verstappen, Sergio and Alonso were dousing themselves with champagne, George Russell was on his way to take the third place trophy that he was just recently notified was his.

    Alonso had a 5 second grid penalty that we all thought was successfully served during his first pitstop. Apparently, that was not the case. The back jack has touching the car before they were allowed to work on the car. No advantage was gained but as per the letter of the rules, this was in violation of the rule of "working on the car". It was around the last lap when the broadcast said that Alonso could be hit with another penalty because of these actions.

    It turns out that the pit crew was in the wrong and they were hit with a 10 second penalty which dropped Alonso off the podium. Tough but fair, Russel takes the last spot on the podium, we'll see you in two weeks in Australia.

    Well, we all thought that was the end, but apparently Aston Martin disagreed with the ruling and the additional penalty. And, after another review, the penalty was over turned and Alonso got his 100th career podium reinstated. Aston Martin argued that the rules didn't explicitly say the back jack could not touch the car and it seems like there was enough grey area for the ruling to be overturned.

    I am a big Alonso fan so I am quite happy he eventually got the podium back but I can understand Mercedes and George Russell fans feeling they were screwed out of a podium and crucial world championship points.

    The next thing I expect to happen is the FIA getting rid of any grey area with this rule, changing up the word so that what Alonso's pit crew did was either 100% against the rules, or 100% legal to do. I personally don't care either way, they can make it legal or illegal, its just important that moving forward there is a clear black and white answer to this problem.