The Spaniard was contesting his 350th career in Formula 1 at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, and became the driver with the most participations in history, tied with Kimi Raikkonen, but a day that should be a celebration turned bitter.
After starting from sixth position after the application of the sanctions, the man from Oviedo remained in the middle of the peloton stuck in a DRS train by Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren. Unable to overtake his rivals, the Alpine rider tried to lengthen his first stop in the pits with a medium tire that held up perfectly, although he gave ground to the favorites who came from behind, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton. .
When the time came for his stop, everyone thought he would go to the pitlane to fit a soft compound that would allow him to push to the checkered flag, but the television production showed his mechanics surrounding the car with fans while radioing the driver. that he should withdraw.
Although the French team did not reveal the reason for the abandonment , Alonso had a first theory: “Something with the engine, I don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe it was something with the water pressure, we are still looking for the exact reason, but From the beginning of the race I noticed a loss of power display”.
The two-time world champion had to deal with a setback in the way his energy was deployed at Monza, and he reported it to the engineer before the fateful retirement: “I wasn’t giving all my energy, so it’s been a tough race so far. issue”.
“Obviously they didn’t want to tell me on the radio that I had a problem, so I’m not sure if that was the case or if it was to continue,” Alonso explained. “We couldn’t finish, although we didn’t have much pace either. We have to find the speed in qualifying as well because we didn’t perform as expected here in Monza.”
The Spaniard is aware that this type of problem arises in a category like Formula 1, but, at the same time, he hoped to conclude the appointment: “It’s not something you can control, you push on all the straights and you see something happen. seeing the checkered flag being 10th or 11th, nothing beyond that, but it was still good to finish.
Asked what will happen in the rest of the season, before changing from Alpine blue colors to Aston Martin green, he said: “I don’t know, we should have been better at Monza because the efficiency of the car so far was good, and I’m not sure what will happen in the fight for fourth position with McLaren in the constructors’ championship, so I hope to be competitive and close to them in the next races”.
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