Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently criticized Fernando Alonso and now it is the Alpine driver who has returned the attack after being questioned about the superiority of the German team. ” It’s as if they were playing basketball with a different basket ,” declared Alonso after Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“ We were all surprised that a driver has 25 penalty positions in a weekend ends up winning the race . The superiority this weekend is clear and it is what it is. It is not new to Formula 1, they have won the last seven championships with this superiority and it is what it is, ” Fernando Alonso began at a press conference.
“It’s up to the other teams to try to catch up with them, improve our package, the aerodynamics… Red Bull has done a better job this year and they are leading the championship. Mercedes has shown that they are not going to give up, ”continued the 40-year-old.
“Mercedes plays with a different basket from the rest”
Returning to the superiority of Mercedes, Fernando Alonso added: “ It is as if you were playing basketball and there was a different basket for you compared to the other teams . They score their points in a big basket and you have to score them in a smaller one, you always lose ”.
“We are all professional drivers and we are very committed to our sport, we train, we practice in the simulator and we risk our lives, but we are one lap behind every weekend . We will go to Qatar knowing that already ”, he lamented.
It was precisely this that led Fernando Alonso to try his luck away from Formula 1. However, if he has returned, he is motivated by the change in regulation that will take effect in 2022. “ It is the only sport in which this happens and probably the new rules arrive next year to make the sport fairer . I am lucky to have won two championships, I am privileged to have experienced that or to have been at Toyota for two years in the WEC and have that superiority in the car. I imagine small children seeing this, a car passing two others on the straight … ”, he concluded.
Alonso and the incident between Verstappen and Hamilton
Fernando Alonso has also referred to the incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton that the FIA did not see fit to investigate. Although the one affected in the Brazilian Grand Prix turned out to be Hamilton, in the United States it was Alonso who was affected by a similar action. “ It is very difficult, very hard . We already saw it in Austin. They once said that I forced Kimi off the track at Turn 1. I did pretty much the same thing in Austin as well at Turn 12 with Giovinazzi, pushing him off the track a bit, and Giovinazzi had to give me back the position. It is difficult to monitor that, “he said in this regard.
Mercedes’ attack on Fernando Alonso
Totto Wolff, head of the Mercedes team, is tired of hearing people say that they would be champion with Lewis Hamilton’s car, so he wanted to break a spear in favor of the Briton. “I believe that only when he retires will people understand the magnitude of his achievements. People who say he could be champion with Lewis’s car… Well, why aren’t they in Lewis’s car? Why did he switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013? It was a brave move. There are several examples, even now, of people who went before for the money than for the car, “he said.
Questioned directly by Fernando Alonso , Toto Wolff added: “He is, without a doubt, one of the best drivers who have raced in Formula 1. In history. It is disappointing for the sport that he has nothing more than two titles under his belt . But you should know that you are part of the solar system, not the sun . “
“ Some pilots are badly advised. They see themselves in the media spotlight and begin to believe that they are the sun . And they are not. None of us are. We are all satellites. We are the planets that are turning ”, concluded the head of the Mercedes team.
