Fernando Alonso's former boss felt Lewis Hamilton should have been penalized during the 2023 F1 Canadian GP

Fernando Alonso's former boss, Paul Stoddart, felt Lewis Hamilton should have been penalized for the pitlane in the Canadian GP. The incident in question happened when the two drivers jumped into the pitlane to change tires during the first safety car period. Since both Alonso and Lewis were in close proximity, it was going to be touch and go between the two.

When the tire change was done, Lewis Hamilton was released marginally ahead of Fernando Alonso in the pitlane. The moment Lewis is released from his garage, it does appear that Alonso takes evasive action and presses the brakes, giving an indication that Mercedes had made an unsafe release.

While Lewis Hamilton was investigated for an unsafe release by the stewards, he wasn't penalized for the incident. It did not matter for the Aston Martin driver as Alonso passed Lewis on the track itself. However, the decision from the stewards did come under scrutiny, as Martin Brundle, on commentary, too felt that the Mercedes had executed an unsafe release.

Alonso's former team boss, Paul Stoddart, felt the same, as he wrote in his Racingnews365.com column.

"Fernando Alonso’s race in Canada was excellent. He was bit unlucky with a couple of things. I really think that incident with Hamilton in the pit lane was worthy of a five-second penalty at the least, but was also very dangerous, because it could have ruined both their races.”

Lewis Hamilton looks back on a successful weekend in Canada

Lewis Hamilton was extremely happy after securing a podium in Canada, as the track was not supposed to be a strong one for the team. Looking back at the race, he told the media:

"It's been a great weekend. To have this consistency and to be up on the podium once again here is fantastic. It's quite an honour to be up on the podium with two other world champions. We didn't quite have the pace today to challenge for more. We knew this wouldn't be our strongest circuit though as we struggle in the low-speed corners in particular."

He added:

"We've still got a lot of work to do to add more performance and efficiency. We are slowly chipping away at those ahead though. I do believe we will get there at some stage and we are going in the right direction."

The Mercedes driver now has three podiums this season and is starting to put together a very impressive run.

Edited by Yasho Amonkar