Alonso explains why he did not attack Stroll in home race

17:11, 05 Jun 2023
12 Comments

Fernando Alonso had undoubtedly hoped for more than a seventh place in his home Grand Prix. The Aston Martin driver came no further than P9 in qualifying a day earlier, which effectively ended his podium chances right from the start. To GPblog and others, he looked back on his race.

"At the beginning, we didn't have a plan, to be honest, because we were not sure about the degradation," said Alonso. The Spaniard started on softs and drove quite a few laps on the red tyre before going in for another set of softs. Lance Stroll was also on the move on that strategy, but all the other 18 drivers were not.

So why this choice? "On the first stint, George was so fast that when he overtook me, I think we changed our mind a little bit. We didn't want to run that close to the cars in front. We just tried to extend the first stint. And by doing so, we extended the second stint. We knew that our opportunity was in the last 15 laps of the race. But not enough to fight at the front, just to fight the midfield," Alonso said.

Alonso lets Stroll finish ahead of him

In the third and final stint, the 41-year-old Spaniard found himself on hard tyres, and on the white-cheeked rubber, the two-time world champion had a good pace. He quickly approached Stroll but made no serious attempt to overtake his teammate. Instead, Alonso announced over the team radio that Stroll did not need to fear a fight either, not exactly typical of Alonso.

"Yes, it was 10 laps to the end. I was with a little bit fresher tyres. But one or two-tenths faster than him, no more than that. And I will not get crazy. I damaged one floor yesterday, and I didn't want to damage another one today, or he damaged the floor or anything. I just tried to secure the place. For us, it's the same 6th and 7th and 7th and 6th," he explained.

12 Comments
Alwaysangry 06 June 2023 at 06:18+ 1173

He scored points in a different way. Points deemed more valuable by Alonzo. Smart move. Why risk lance taking you both out for one place considering where u end up compared to lance at the end of the season. Not to mention they are way above where they expected already. $$$

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GregTseiwei79 05 June 2023 at 20:28+ 1451

I thought Alonso still had the "eye of the tiger"!!? Happily letting his poor teammate finish in front of him !!???‍♂️ Became too friendly with the boss or what!!

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Magog 05 June 2023 at 22:27+ 9569

After being on the podium so much 6th and 7th place don't really matter to him. He just wanted both cars to finish and focus on the next race.

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GregTseiwei79 05 June 2023 at 23:25+ 1451

He's fightinng for 2nd place overall, he's suppose to be fighting hard for every possible points available just like Max is fighting for every best laps tiny points there!! These 2 points Alonso left there could be important at the end. Lance's season is ruined anyway and it did not change anything for team points either!

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Bohunkgearhead 05 June 2023 at 17:43+ 1816

I believe that Alonso is aware that this is likely his last team in F1, so he embraces the nepotism at AMR and keeps his seat.

bringBackTheV12 05 June 2023 at 17:29+ 2912

FA is no dummy, that was a wise strategic decision on his part. No, not the fear of reprisal, rather, racking up brownie points.

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VeganWarrior 05 June 2023 at 18:02+ 52456

Well I beg to defer on that point, Alonso was the reason AM lost their P2 spot in the constructors and gave Russell his well deserved poduim, by holding up the other Redbull driver thats not his sole buddy . So not so smart on his part .

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Divergent2 05 June 2023 at 18:25+ 21274

Alonso is the very reason why Aston Martin were P2 in the first place for so many races.

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J41L 05 June 2023 at 18:33+ 23147

Exactly!! Some people seem to have a pretty distorted view of reality.

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VeganWarrior 05 June 2023 at 18:44+ 52456

I never said otherwise, I just pointed out he is the reason they are not right now.

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VeganWarrior 05 June 2023 at 19:53+ 52456

I never said otherwise, the fact remains Alonso holding Pérez up,resulted in AM losing that P2 constructors spot.

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Divergent2 05 June 2023 at 19:05+ 21274

They are not P2 right now because Lance has massively underperformed.