Alonso stunned by stewards' decision in Austria: 'I just don't get it'
F1 News
Fernando Alonso disagrees with the decision to give Nico Hulkenberg two penalty points for a move undertaken on the Spaniard during the sprint race in Austria. It's not the first time during the 2024 Formula 1 season that Alonso has voiced his opinion against the stewards.
Alonso and Hulkenberg were battling for 14th place in the sprint race, far away from the points-paying positions. The Haas driver made an aggressive move at turn three, causing them both to run wide. This opened the door for Daniel Ricciardo to move through. Hulkenberg was punished with a ten-second penalty and was handed two penalty points. Alonso feels that is simply wrong.
"It was too optimistic for sure, but I probably disagree with the penalty points again. You can succeed, or you can make a mistake, and maybe you pay the price or you have to give back the position, or if it's the last lap of the race, there is a time penalty, but I don't think that it was a dangerous manoeuvre. He was just attempting an overtake. Too optimistic, okay, but not the penalty points. I still don't get it," Alonso told GPblog and others in Austria.
Why Aston Martin are struggling in Austria
Alonso finished the sprint race in 15th place and only just got through Q1 in qualifying for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. In the end, Alonso qualified in 15th position, two places ahead of his teammate Lance Stroll. Alonso gave an honest message to his team.
"Fundamentally, we lack pace in the car. We lack a little bit of speed and efficiency. We tried many different things in the car since the sprint race to qualifying. We changed aero parts, we changed mechanically the car, we changed the ride height. We changed basically, you know, a lot of the stuff in the car, trying something different, also in the other car. So we have plenty of data and plenty of things to analyse. And unfortunately, the positions are more or less in the same place," Alonso concluded.
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1 July 2024
