Insight into the two time world champions tyre choice

Alonso on inferior start: 'My reaction is still very good'

F1 News

Alonso reacts at the press conference to his reaction at the start
19 June 2023 at 07:49
  • Oli Lewis
  • Editor

Fernando Alonso has once again driven his Aston Martin to a podium finish. The 41-year-old Spaniard is having an incredibly strong season, rising above the Aston Martin despite his age. According to the two-time world champion, his reaction time is also still good enough.

It has been a dream season for Alonso so far. After two seasons in the midfield with Alpine, he made the spicy switch to Aston Martin this winter. Since then, the Spaniard can be found on the podium almost every week.

'My reaction is still very good'

At the start, the 41-year-old driver lost his second place to Lewis Hamilton. According to Alonso, it was not due to his reaction speed, he told the post-race press conference: "My reaction is still very good. I need to check. I don't know if the drivers on that side of the grid started good or not, because I only saw Max and Lewis. But George (Russell) didn't overtake me, so maybe it was just the wrong side of the grid."

Alonso happy with choice of hards

At the final pit stop, Verstappen and Hamilton went to the medium tyres, but Alonso opted for the hard tyre. "We ran out of mediums. It's something that you need to decide before qualifying (which tyres to allocate). Sometimes you go for one medium, one hard tyre because you think that's enough, and sometimes you go for two hards, sometimes for two mediums. With the very limited practice on Friday, it was just a guess, but I'm happy with the decision, the hards was not a bad tyre at all."