"How did that not get a penalty?": Fans question why Lewis Hamilton was not penalized for an unsafe release during his pitstop

F1 fans were left perplexed after the FIA didn't penalize Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for an unsafe release in their attempt to get out ahead of Fernando Alonso during the round of pit stops at the 2023 Canadian GP.

The seven-time world champion had gotten ahead of his Alonso from the line and moved himself up to second position. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both pitted together in the first pit stop and it was mighty close between the duo.

The Mercedes crew released Hamilton just in front of the Spaniard after they had a slightly longer pitstop compared to Alonso. While the Briton was appreciative of his team's efforts to get him ahead of his rival, the Aston Martin driver was less than impressed and claimed that he had to break to avoid an incident in the pitlane.

Fans on social media reacted to the incident, questioning why the Briton did not get penalized. One fan asked:

"How did that not get a penalty?"

Here are some more reactions:

Lewis Hamilton reflects on the current performance of the W14

Since bringing the upgrades to Monaco, Mercedes have seen an upturn in form, with Lewis Hamilton scoring back-to-back podiums in consecutive races. But the seven-time world champion stated that he does not feel much of a difference compared to the beginning of the season.

In his post-race press conference, Hamilton said:

"In truth, it doesn't feel a huge difference from the beginning of the year. There are some elements of the car that do feel different and obviously with the upgrade but it's just simply just have a little bit more downforce on the car. But the characteristics of the car are very, very similar to what we had earlier on in the year and so we need to… for the future, for the next year's car, you need to take a lot of these different things off and change them for sure."

He added:

"It's definitely not the car that… characteristic-wise the car that's going to be able to beat Red Bull just yet. And so we've got to work on that. For example, it was very bumpy, on this track, and I think everyone was struggling but our car was very stiff. But I think we were all struggling with the stiffness of our cars."

It will be interesting to see if Mercedes can continue on their form until the mid-season break. The German outfit are currently second in the Constructor's Standings with 167 points, just ahead of Aston Martin with 154 points.