Although Fernando Alonso appeared to throw his support behind Max Verstappen in the Qatar qualifying debate, the Spaniard insists the issue is not George Russell being two-faced but rather F1’s stewarding.

A feud erupted between Verstappen and Russell after qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix where the reigning World Champion lost pole position to Russell when the Mercedes driver complained about his “dangerous” driving.

Fernando Alonso weighs in on Verstappen V Russell

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

According to Russell, Verstappen had been too slow on his out-lap with Russell almost rear-ending him even though the Red Bull driver was, according to Verstappen, only doing what those ahead of him – including Alonso – were doing by slowing to build a gap.

Verstappen was hit with a one-place grid penalty and lost pole position to Russell.

Alonso was baffled by the penalty, telling the media in Qatar: “He was slow, but George was on a slow lap as well. So in Abu Dhabi, if I’m in a slow lap, I will push crazy to the car in front to have penalty I guess, if he’s impeding me.”

But as the feud between Verstappen and Russell ignited, Verstappen blasted the Briton for trying to “screw” him over with the stewards and claimed Russell presents one face to the camera and another behind closed doors.

Days later they were at it again it again, neither holding their punches as Russell claimed Verstappen threatened to “put me on my f**king head in the wall” while Verstappen insisted he “didn’t say that” and that Russell was trying to “flesh it out again”.

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But if you ask Alonso, the problem is not the he said/he said situation, it’s that Formula 1’s stewarding has put the drivers in a position where one week something is okay and the next week it is not.

“No, I don’t think so,” Alonso told the media, including PlanetF1.com, when asked about Verstappen’s ‘two-faced’ assessment of Russell.

“I think George is a great driver, great person. I’m a good friend of George as well. I don’t think that he’s showing different faces here and there.

“I think it’s more about… what Max probably agrees with me that I said many times, that some of the penalties are a little bit not consistent in terms of if you have that one episode in Qatar and then you go to the next event and you replicate exactly the same episode, which you can replicate by yourself.

“You can induce that episode driving, then you don’t get the same result in terms of penalties. That’s the frustration that we sometimes have.”

Formula 1 though now has a new race director with Rui Marques was appointed ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, replacing Niels Wittich who had taken over from Michael Masi in 2022.

Alonso hopes Marques can bring some continuity to the job.

“Recently we changed the race director, we changed also some of the people in the stewards’ room so hopefully all those changes are for good and to improve this consistency that we are asking,” he said.

“So we need to give them a little bit of time as well. And hopefully, here and next year, we have a more consistent and better outcomes.”

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