Alonso ironizes with Japan's strategy and Alpine F1 defends itself

Alonso finished seventh in Japan, just eleven thousandths behind a Sebastian Vettel with whom he had an epic duel until the finish line on the last lap. However, the Spaniard is clear that the result could have been better if Alpine had made the right decisions.

After the race resumed after the long red flag, it didn’t take long for the drivers to change from extreme wet tires (mandatory when starting after the Safety Car ) to intermediate. As his teammate Esteban Ocon was ahead and had stopped, Alonso had to stay out one more lap, as happened to Daniel Ricciardo. That made the Spaniard lose ground and two positions but, in turn, allowed him to get first during a turn.

Like his team-mate with Lewis Hamilton, Alonso found himself stuck for many laps behind Vettel as George Russell began to inch up behind him. Without the possibility of overtaking, the #14 opened the Alpine radio to propose making a stop and mounting new intermediate tires with which to overtake the rivals.

However, from the team they told him to stay out, which caused Alonso’s anger , as has become evident in the videos that emerged on social networks.

Finally, after seeing that Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll had their tire change working after entering lap 18 and 20 respectively, Alonso also pitted, on lap 22 (of 28), and although he had no problem overtaking Nicholas Latifi and Russell, he finished right where he was, seventh behind Vettel.

“The strategy has not worked for us today,” lamented Fernando Alonso to the media. “We made the wrong decisions all the time. First, we stopped last to put in the intermediate ones, and we lost positions.”

And regarding the anger for not coming in earlier to change tires in the final part, he commented: “Then we stopped too late at the second stop, six laps from the end, and I ended up in the same place I was. I asked to pit earlier in both times, but maybe my microphone wasn’t working this time.

Alonso was also one of the drivers who believed, like Alpine himself, that the race would last one more lap, and in fact he kept accelerating and overtaking cars when he had already passed the checkered flag.

Asked by Motorsport.com if he had to trust the team, he replied: “We should have stopped with 10, 11 or 12 laps to go. As I said, I don’t know what they were doing, and then we stopped with six laps to go. We have missed an opportunity.”

Expressing Alonso’s anger to him, Alpine sporting director Alan Permane latched onto the fact that they expected a longer grand prix length, that extra lap: “If the race had gone the distance we thought it was going, would he have caught Sebastian? Yes.”

But he admitted that, in hindsight, they can understand that they reacted late: “So we probably should have done it a bit earlier, although it’s not easy to predict, because also their tires were going at the end of the stint as well.”

“And yes, in hindsight yes, we could have. But I don’t think we realized how easy it was going to be to overtake people.”

“We talked to him and he said, ‘Should we think about pitting?’ And he would have had to overtake five cars, so we thought it wouldn’t be a good thing to do.”

“And then I think we saw Zhou stop, and he was five seconds a lap quicker. And we said, ‘Okay, yeah, let’s do that.’ As I think it should have been, I would have been in front of Sebastian.”

Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 Team A522

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photo by: alpine

Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 Team A522

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photo by: alpine

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Foto de: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, George Russell, Mercedes W13

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Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, George Russell, Mercedes W13

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Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Sergio Pérez, Red Bull Racing RB18, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, George Russell, Mercedes W13