What is Alonso complaining about? The reason that can remove him from the podiums and the 33

“It doesn’t bother me because this year everything that happens is a gift. Last year I dreamed of making a podium and we had 6 podiums in 10 races and I was third in the World Championship. And every race is a gift. And for several months we have been thinking about 2024. I remember that in Barcelona many people asked me why I did not attack Stroll, that two points are still important at the end of the championship, but I don’t care because this year I know that I will finish third, fourth or fifth, so I don’t care. It’s more important to start 2024 well and have the options to have a strong car like we had this year at the start of the preseason.”said Fernando Alonso this Saturday in front of the Spanish press who attended F1 Hungarian GPafter youA classification in which he is 8th and which is confirmation that the chips of the game seen since the beginning of the season jump to occupy other squares on a new board.

Is it possible for McLaren to go from being one of the worst teams at the start of the season to being a great contender for podiums and a challenger to Red Bull just 10 races later? And something even more surprising: 6 races ago, Lando Norris was 16th in the Miami standings, while his teammate Piastri was 19th. After 6 races, the two McLarens overtook Alonso and confirmed their big step forward on a completely different track to Silverstone and Austria.where the new package of updates from McLaren showed a lot of potential.

McLaren is not expected to work on an opposite layout as well, which is full of slow corners. The Woking car performed well on all types of tracks, and seemed to be the new Aston Martin, which started the year as the second best car on all types of tracks behind Red Bull. Or maybe it’s Mercedes: fast in Silverstone and fast in Hungary, on opposite tracks.

Here we need to add one more point. Never have Verstappen and Red Bull come close to Silverstone. It was surprising to see Max not quite able to distance himself from Norris on a track where Red Bull had to maximize all its power. And at the Hungaroring, Mercedes achieved its first pole position, Hamilton’s first after 33 races (since Jeddah 2021).

all this, in a context of a tighter grill. As seen in Hungary. Qualifying was crazy. It is true that it is a short pita and the differences are small, but it is also rare to see two Alfa Romeos in Q3, ahead of Alonso. Or Sainz from Q3 after 33 consecutive top 10 races. This Saturday, any millennial may leave you because equality is unheard of. Hamilton beat Max by just 3 thousandths and Norris by 85 thousandths. The distance between the first 6 is 3 tenths, and half a second between the top 10.

A change of rules in the middle of the course

So, Fernando Alonso came out to speak and gave his version of what happened. He recognized that Aston Martin had brought fewer evolutions during the year compared to others and that this was something that the team had to grow with its new and large factory, new release. Also how much other teams have done. But the giant steps are as big as the sudden good performance of McLaren or Mercedes in the last two tracks, no longer suffering from the irregularity seen earlier in the performance of the tire… there is something else altogether. Fernando is clear: the decision by Pirelli and FIA to change the casing of the tires in the middle of the (harder) course, since the last Silverstone GP, citing safety issues, has completely changed the game.

Why were the tires replaced?

Pirelli, the sole supplier of the championship, was requested, under article 10.8.3 of the technical regulations of Formula 1making changes to their tires that ensure that the performance of this year’s cars is higher than expected, and therefore, the tires are experiencing a higher level of demand than expected for their creation. The tires for this course are designed for specific loads and forces, so the unexpected big increase in the performance of the cars this year compared to last year made Pirelli act to avoid any problems.

However, it is something that draws attention when he does a few races, at the Miami GP, Verstappen did 45 laps on hard rubber at high speed. Or in Baku, where Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon entered the final two laps in the pits (the Frenchman in the end) to change tires only because it is mandatory to do so at least once per race to mount a different compound. They can last the entire race with that rubber at a great pace. Do the tires need to have a harder casing?

“We have seen how much the performance of the 2023 cars has improved since last year in the opening races of this season, and that is thanks to the extraordinary speed of development shown by the ten teams,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of sports.

“In Miami, for example, the pole time was almost two seconds faster than last year, but the same kind of progress was also seen during the races. Pirelli’s simulation work always aims not only to deliver a product that achieves the performance targets defined by the stakeholders, but also that anticipates and responds quickly to any issues,” added Isola. And it is that if Pirelli is in F1 it is for publicity: it would be counterproductive if their tires showed weakness.

“The new specification contains materials that we have already developed for 2024, which will make the tires more resistant without affecting any of the other technical parameters or their behavior on the track,” he said. But after its implementation at Silverstone, in only two races the change was noticed.

Sudden change in trend and Alonso’s complaint

After that, many teams seemed to make a surprising step forward, except for two great dominators at the beginning of the course: Red Bull and Aston Martin. Red Bull no longer has the dominance shown before (at the disadvantage of seeing the pace of the race this Sunday) and it looks like it can continue to win, but it has no insulting victories. And Aston Martin, a candidate for the podium that has always been from the beginning, besides stagnating the development of the car, could be affected by this change. In fact, Alonso is clear that these new tires are worse for the green car than many of its rivals.

Pedro de la Rosa warned MD. Changing the tire casing is important, and in fact, at Aston Martin they pledged all their FP1 on Friday in Barcelona to study the new rubber, the difference in air flow and the change it could bring to their aerodynamic package. A small change can make a complete difference in your performance. They know it’s something that can affect a team. Finally, they may suffer it in their flesh, although the cause is unknown.

Another important point is that Red Bull and Aston Martin were superior from the start due to their better breakdowns. This allowed them to have tremendous racing speed while their rivals sank. A stiffer casing increases the resistance, and therefore, can dilute the effect of that element of difference. If everyone lowers less, things turn out. Aston Martin may have lost its greatest strength. They took away his sword. Or rather, the other teams took their wooden swords and gave them steels they didn’t have before.

so, Fernando Alonso did not hesitate to throw strong ‘darts’ for what happened after this change: “When you change the height of the net, or the basket ring, or the soccer ball in the middle of the championship, it’s always something bad”, Alonso told the Spanish press at the Hungaroring circuit, along with MD, before also speaking out against the experimental qualifying format that was tested in Hungary and will be repeated at Monza. “It’s been horrible”he spoke about a ‘qualy’ in which he was obliged to wear the hard tire in Q1, the medium in Q2 and the soft in Q3 and which caused the teams not to ride in free practice.

But without a doubt, the controversial issue is about the tires. “Did some teams gain half a second with this change? It was taken from others. I am no longer concentrating on Aston Martin, because we need to improve and we have not made many improvements throughout the championship”, said Alonso, clarifying that Aston Martin must continue to develop in 2024, including its new factory, to further develop its car. But to make it clear that the developments are not just lacking, he stressed that “Red Bull is not too happy” with the change because they lost their advantage from one day to the next.

It already happened in 2013 and it also hurt Alonso

The game has changed, as it did in 2013 with new tires in the middle of the season that hurt Alonso in his fight for the title against Red Bull, which started to fly from there. This time, Fernando took away the steel from him because for him this course was a “gift” for his 6 podiums. Prefer to focus on 202