Fernando Alonso will start the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from the pit lane, following suspension changes made by Aston Martin during Parc Ferme.
The two-time world champion endured a miserable Saturday at Imola after crashing in FP3, leaving the Silverstone-based team needing a quick overhaul ahead of qualifying.
Miraculously, Alonso's car was repaired in time for Q1, although the Spaniard failed to make it past the first part of qualifying. Alonso had initially qualified 19th.
However, according to Article 40.9 of the Sporting Regulations, Alonso must start from the pits after suspension changes.
The stewards' report read: “Aston Martin Aramco has changed the suspension setting of the 14 car under Park Fermé, and this does not comply with Article 40.9 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Code.”
Systems. Therefore, the No. 14 car is required to start the race from the pits.”
Opportunity to “collect more data”
Before the FIA announced the start of the pit lane for Alonso, Racing News 365 Tom McCullough, Aston Martin Performance Director, asked the reason behind the suspension changes.
“It's one of the things we're definitely thinking about with Fernando,” McCullough said.
“We had a really good Friday, honestly, we were pretty happy with Friday and then Saturday was a tough day for us.
“It was a huge effort by the guys to rebuild the car and get it out. The car was ready four minutes into the session and we just got out.
“But we're looking at whether we can get more out of the car and learn more, because it's very difficult to get anything from the back of the grid here. Start thinking about whether it's worth getting easier parts to collect more data.”
Aston Martin made an impressive nine upgrades for the first race of the European stage of the season, with Friday seen as a positive day by the side.
However, Saturday could not have been worse for a team struggling to keep up with the right-back.
“It's a relative game, our pace and our long drive on Friday, we were reasonably happy with the turnout which we thought was going to be reasonably tough for us,” McCullough added.
“But yeah, Saturday was a really bad day, so we didn't make the most of it.”
