Fernando Alonso finished 7th in the F1 Japanese GP, in the same position he started. The Spaniards could not spring a surprise in the wet conditions. The man from Oviedo made a bet on Saturday to risk if it rained this Sunday, but it didn’t happen and that’s what doomed him. Vettel, who restarted the race last, without losing, made a quick stop to put on intermediate tires when the race resumed after the first red flag and finished ahead of him, in 6th position thanks to the said strategy. Alpine chose others to harm the Asturian.
The man from Oviedo stayed on the track and Ocon, who was 5th, came in to put the intermediates on the lap where most did. Alonso couldn’t stop the moment because he would have wasted time waiting for his teammate’s tires to be changed. He stayed another lap on the asphalt, leading the race, and retired a lap later, returning to the track in 7th place.
In the end, the Spaniard wanted to continue attacking, but Alpine stopped him too late to put in a set of new intermediates with just a few laps to go. He returned to the track 10th and got back to the final 7th position, with no time for anything else. For all these reasons, at the end of the race, Fernando made it very clear on the radio that he wasn’t happy with the decisions of his team’s wall: “‘What a mistake, huh. I mean, strategically, what you are doing to me this year.’ Asturian taught.
Later, he explained what happened in the statements published by ‘AS’, using a great final irony: “The strategy didn’t work for us. We kept making the wrong decisions. In the end, there were six laps to go (to ride new intermediates). I finished right where I started. I asked the radio to stop me earlier, both times, but I don’t know. Now my microphone must be disconnected” “We had to stop with ten or twelve laps to go, but I don’t know what they were doing. We missed an opportunity,” he concluded.
“Inside the car there was a bit of chaos within the team”
“The whole weekend was strange and the race had to be like this. At the beginning it was for extreme tires (on the restart after the red flag). We stopped late to put the intermediates and I lost some positions, and then at the end we said to stop and there were 6 laps left, I think, so I was missing one or two laps to get some positions,” he explained to ‘DAZN F1’.
“Then we didn’t know if it was the last lap of the race. They warned me in the last corner. I think it was the same for everyone, but inside the car there was a little chaos within the team and I wasn’t Not quite who is satisfied. But I think It was a difficult weekend and also a difficult Sunday for the FIA and now Max is world champion, 20 minutes ago he was not… on Sunday.”
“The truth is we have to talk about it with the FIA. After 2014, with the Jules (Bianchi) accident, the whole system changed a bit to prevent that from happening again. And now we see a crane on the track. …it doesn’t matter if there is a Safety Car, yellow or red flag. The tow truck on the track has to come out only when the cars are in the pit lane or the race is neutralized. So we will try to help the FIA and see how it happened and who gave the order to understand, now it is difficult to say”.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
