The 3 details that kept Alonso from fighting for 33 in Canada

Aston Martin has taken a big step forward with the big package of evolutions announced in Canadian F1 GP and this allowed Fernando Alonso to do something he has not achieved this year, imitate the rhythm of Max Verstappen and on several occasions set faster laps than the Dutchman. “Red Bull is not far away”, Alonso taught. And indeed, in one of his radios with the team, his engineer was clear: “I want to win this race, man.” Fernando was closer than ever in terms of race pace, with the exception of Monaco, a particular track where he had a great chance of achieving his 33rd F1 victory. No one knows if he can beat a great Max at the wheel of the best car on the grid, but the fact is that the current king, in his session with medium rubber, is losing tenths lap after lap compared to Alonso. Max said he had no grip and said after the race that it was probably due to the lower temperature of the asphalt. There could be a final fight, but everything changed in an attack of Hamilton in the pits and a subsequent “false alarm” with the fuel system.

These are the details that prevented Alonso from trying to fight for the win with Max in Canada:

The fight with Hamilton

Alonso clarified: “We were hoping we could fight better with Red Bull but we lost a position at the start with Lewis and I had to fight with them.” That marked his battle with Verstappen. He had to focus on defending his second position to Lewis instead of thinking only about what seemed more difficult: beating Verstappen. That detail marked the race. On lap 40, Alonso cut time lap after lap for a Max that struggled on the hard tires, with little grip. Alonso was 5 seconds away and reduced that gap to 4.7″. But then Lewis Hamilton, who was almost 4″ behind Fernando, launched his attack into the pits in search of an ‘undercut’.

Aston Martin had a decision to make: go into the next lap to defend against Hamilton’s pit attack or extend their pit stop as planned to attack Max. The first option is safer. The second could beat him to second place. They chose to defend against Hamilton. This changed everything because it made Fernando Alonso go for a worse tire strategy, which is the next point of analysis.
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If he didn’t have to fight Hamilton, Alonso might have extended his stint to try to put Max Verstappen in trouble, to put him under pressure. And Alonso can finish the race on soft tires, on the attack. He couldn’t do it.

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I don’t have any other moderately new tires

When Fernando Alonso entered the pits to defend against Hamilton’s attack, there was a problem. The fastest tire on the track is the medium. Verstappen and Hamilton had a set of new medium tyres, but Alonso didn’t. Fernando had to force his way out of the hard tire. So, he went from cutting the distance to Verstappen wearing both hard, to being a rubber disadvantage against Max and Hamilton, both with medium while Alonso finished the appointment with hard. He had to work hard to defend his second position, with no options to attack Max.

3

A suspected fuel system problem

On lap 48, Fernando Alonso announced on the radio that the team had asked him to reserve fuel, thus losing key tenths every lap that prevented him from continuing to attack Max Verstappen. This was after his second stop, with a worse tire than Max. This prevented him from continuing to try to hug the champion.

Fernando Alonso was forced to use the ‘lift and coast’ technique to reserve fuel. “Tell me when the ‘lift and coast’ thing is ok. I want to stop doing it,” the Asturian told his engineer. “Yes, we will, but please keep doing it,” they answered from the wall. “I want to win the race, mate”, said Fernando when he was 5 seconds behind Max.
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​However, Mike Krack, Aston Martin Team Principal, revealed that all this could be a false alarm: “We thought we had a small problem with the fuel system and we wanted to make sure, not risk it. Maybe it’s a false alarm. but we can’t risk it. That false alarm forced Alonso to slow down and he was able to push again at the end to defend his second position against the pace of Hamilton, who was on better rubber.