BARCELONA, Spain — Fernando Alonso has apologised to FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem for the comments he made ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in which he said one of F1’s race directors lacked the knowledge to do his job properly.
Ahead of his home race, Alonso suggested Niels Wittich, who was one of two race directors who replaced Michael Masi this season, did not have the racing knowledge required to do the job. He also accused the Miami Grand Prix stewards of “incompetence” for a penalty he was given.
Later that day, Alonso was seen having an animated conversation outside the Alpine motorhome with Ben Sulayem.
“We talked during the week as well,” Alonso said on Sunday after the race, where he drove from last position to ninth. “Very good friend with Mohammed.
“I have a lot of trust, personally, in Mohammed, at how he’s handled FIA and other changes that he’s making and the things he wants to improve. I’m fully supportive of what he’s doing and his ideas and we were talking about Miami and generally the year, how it has been.
“Hearing from them as well I can hear the point I can see the point and I can do things differently and better.”
Asked if he had apologised, he laughed and said: “Yeah, yeah, for sure. To Mohammed especially!”
Alonso suggested he no longer agrees with the opinion he gave earlier in the week.
“Reflecting from Miami, and from Thursday [to] here… maybe I see it in a different way now. They did their job in Miami and we see differently from the car and from the heat of the moment.
“I think we all work together to improve the show. Today, for example, the fans saw a super race and we all here to help that, to help the show.”