Alonso’s crack against F1 and blow to Hamilton

Fernando Alonso appeared before the media at the press conference held by the FIA ​​in Sakhir Circuit, after lapping the morning session of the second day of testing in Bahrain, a day where the Asturian was clearly affected by the reduction in track time caused by the improperly arranged manhole cover.

The man from Oviedo did only 31 laps this Thursday morning, lower than the 77 he gave the previous morning as today’s session was halted with less than two hours left (of a total of 4) due to a sewer incident. Finally, that session ended and another extra hour was added to the afternoon session for the teams to make up for lost time. But The Spaniard did not return to the car in the afternoon and handed it over as planned to his colleague Stroll., who thus had an hour more than expected (which they added in the afternoon) to test his Aston Martin AMR24. Because of this, Alonso shot against F1.

That incident caused Fernando Alonso to once again criticize Formula 1 for its limit on test days. In total, it is only allowed to ride with this year’s cars in the official tests these days in Bahrain: Only 3 days left to prepare a full year of 24 races, less than a few campaigns ago, when two weeks were conducted with a total of 8 days of tests. And an endless number less than a decade ago, when teams could run the tests they wanted all year. All this is done to limit F1’s costs and equalize the opportunity for testing between large and small teams. And in particular, Only three days will be held in Bahrain due to the money provided by the Sakhir circuit to host these tests as an official and unique event.

Besides, During that 3-day test, only one car can be used per team which the two pilots must share, leaving each pilot only a day and a half of testing before the course begins. Therefore, when asked about the performance of his new Aston Martin AMR24, after running less than expected and unable to complete his work program this Thursday morning through the aforementioned sewer, the Asturian was forceful.

Fernando Alonso’s criticism and his reference to Hamilton

“It’s hard to say where we are now, without knowing where others are or what they’re doing, and also the program changes depending on the time available… and all because of a regulation. I insist: it’s hard to understand in just a day and a half test per driver.”

“Let’s see how he prepares a tennis championship by changing rackets and balls, and the tennis player has only one day of testing before a Grand Slam. This is something ridiculous in a sport with a 200 million budget for equipment,” he said. .. Then George Russell, who was sitting next to him, pointed at him and reminded him that the budget limit for each team according to regulation is about 140 million a year. “The budget limit is 130 or 140”, the British man told him. And there, Fernando threw an improvised dart at Lewis Hamilton, Russell’s current teammate at Mercedes before leaving for Ferrari in 2025.

“Well, there are things that are left out, like the salaries (of the drivers), and in the case of Mercedes, for sure, because of your partner’s salary,” declared the man from Oviedo, making it clear that he was not wrong in the figure.

Alonso could not understand the reason why the two cars were not used in the tests

Fernando’s phrase caused laughter from the press and the heroes themselves and Alonso continued. “I don’t know the added value of having a second car on the track, but we raced it for a week (The first race will be held on this same track and teams must bring another car to compete), “We have two cars almost ready, and having two cars here, three or four days, should be the minimum for a professional sport and a professional athlete before competing in a championship.”.

“The car is a step forward”

“It’s hard to know where we are”, he added about his Aston Martin’s performance compared to the rest of the grid. “These last few days, with so much wind… it’s complicated for everyone, even for Max Verstappen, to drive and see where everyone is. But the car (the AMR24) is a step forward compared to last year. “I think we understood well the difficulties we had in the second half of 2023 and we improved on them, but it is difficult to know what step forward each person took, and who made the biggest one.”he added.

“Bahrain will only be the first race in a very long year, we have to study well the first grand prix. McLaren still seems to be on top, so we have to work hard and continuously,” he said, with clear reference in the evolution and development of the car, something that Aston Martin has focused on this year with the aim of having a good car base that allows them to improve even more than they did last year in previous car of the year.

Alonso’s complaint is not new

Fernando Alonso’s complaint is not new to F1 during the few days of testing. Asturian strongly defined it last year and the he repeated at the press conference to present his Aston Martin a few days ago.

“We are very limited in terms of testing days in Bahrain. It is not fair to have only one and a half days (for each driver, out of a total of 3 days of preseason testing) to prepare for a championship. No other sport in the world with so much money around and marketing like F1 and that it is so close and getting closer to the fans, and I don’t understand why we don’t go to Bahrain for at least 4 days of testing, 2 and 2 for each driver (from each team) so that one day is not divided among the drivers. Or why not go with two cars if the first race will be there in Bahrain and we will already be there,” he said a few days ago .