Alonso and his complaint on the radio: “You threw me to the lions”

Fernando Alonso I had mixed feelings after the Japanese F1 GP this Sunday. The Spanish driver made it clear that his car performed better than he expected and believes that despite starting late, from 10th position, he can aim to fight for sixth position, involved in the battle in between Mercedes and the Ferrari. However, he was 8th due to a strategy he considered wrong on the part of Aston Martin.

The Asturian shone from the start with a fantastic start that allowed him to get 4 places. surpassed Tsunoda and Russell in the first meters and took advantage of the match in between ‘Czech’ and Hamilton to overtake them within turn 1 and complete the action at the entrance to the ‘eses’ of Suzuki. The Spaniard was one of the few who took a risk by starting on soft tires in a race where a high breakdown was expected.

Therefore, it is expected that he will stop in the pits soon. He did it, on lap 12, but Fernando Alonso He believed that this step was too hasty. According to the Asturian, the team wants to put him in the pits to defend the position Yuki Tsunoda Instead be more ambitious and consider a battle with the Ferraris and the Mercedes. That set him back from that moment, to a second stint on hard rubber where he suffered and was overtaken by several cars.

“You threw me to the lions by stopping so soon. It was unbelievable,” Fernando Alonso exclaimed on the radio to his team. The man from Oviedo was not happy with the approach, which hurt him after a good start. However, it is necessary to see what the soft tire can handle if he stays on the track.

His explanation: “It was too soon”

“I think the race went well and better than expected. The car went faster than I expected in the race. We had a very good run and a very good start, from 10th to 6th. He was comfortable in early in the race, behind the Ferraris and ahead of Hamilton. And suddenly when they called me, I think it was too soon. I think it’s to cover Tsunoda, and maybe our race today is not with Tsunoda and it’s with Ferraris and Mercedes.”commented Fernando Alonso on ‘DAZN F1’.

“So, that’s when we went into a difficult spiral to get out, with too much traffic, and then with the lack of top speed that we have. We turned on the DRS and the car in front still eluded us, so when you encounter traffic, our race becomes complicated,” added the Asturian, who maintained his car’s excellent race pace, but clearly different points.car.

He no longer has the second best car

Beyond strategy, the main problem for Fernando Alonso is that he no longer has the second best car as he did at the start of the season. There, despite the fact that his car was not very competitive in qualifying, his good tire management on Sunday and the speed of his race compared to Mercedes or Ferrari allowed him to advance in many places in search of podium. Today, McLaren, who lost at the beginning of the year, and Mercedes and Ferrari, have surpassed Aston Martin in their evolutions and are better in most events. Especially in classification.

In this context, with an Alonso who struggled a lot to get into Q3 with a car that he said “Q1 or Q2 meat”, It will be very difficult for them to come back because their opponents are better than before. He couldn’t make a big difference in the management of his tires and the pace on Sunday. And to make matters worse, its top speed doesn’t allow it to be strong in straight lines and makes overtaking difficult, which hurts its performance in traffic.

The improvements brought to Zandvoort allowed the car to improve, but not enough to have an advantage at the start of the year over its rivals. So, podiums are more complicated and comebacks are more unattainable unless it rains or something changes at all. Alonso will have to wait for better tracks for his AMR23 to test it in a car that left a good feeling in terms of race speed.

“The positive thing is the speed in the race. I think that in the time trial we missed a lot, we were far from the best, but in the race I think that the stop is when everyone makes and with two hard tires unlike McLaren and Ferrari, I think we can finish 6th ahead of Russell.”Alonso argued. “So the race was a bit of a positive surprise because we could beat a Mercedes and be close to the Ferraris, which during the test seemed impossible,” he added.

They asked him not to play pianos

As if that wasn’t enough, on lap 33, with 20 laps to go, Fernando Alonso was asked to avoid the curbs to avoid a problem with his rear wing like his teammate Stroll was forced to leave. But Fernando could not comply with that request to maintain his eighth place. “No, I didn’t. I was good enough with what I had in the car without going through the middle of the track. “I was on full throttle and I was trying to maintain my position.”concluded with ‘DAZN F1’.