Fernando Alonso joked that “the best thing is not to do the sprint race” after a weekend of mixed fortunes for the Aston Martin in the Formula 1 Chinese GP.
Alonso picked up three penalty points on his licence after contact with Carlos Sainz in Saturday’s sprint, and then found his strategy for the main race on Sunday compromised by the tyre sets he had left over.
He thus found himself running the soft compound in the middle of the race and then losing track position when he pitted for mediums for a short final stint that saw him bag the fastest lap and seventh place.
“Well, we didn’t have any more hard tyres,” he said when I asked him about the strategy call.
“So we had one soft, one medium left, and 35 laps in front of us, which in our calculation was not possible to make it until the end. Obviously, there were a lot of safety car laps, removing the Sauber [of Bottas] out.
“And then as soon as the safety car came in, more safety car laps, because of the crash. So that was I think the luck that the hard cars had to finish the race. Yeah, the best thing is not to do the sprint race, probably on Saturdays, to keep more sets of tyres for Sunday.
“There are few points in the table for us, if you’re not winning the race, and you risk penalty points and things like that on the licence, so it’s better not maybe to race…”
Alonso believes that greater flexibility with tyres will benefit sprint weekends: “I think more tyres will be good, because also in FP1 it’s a game of who runs less, and who uses less sets of tyres, so it’s a shame for the fans.
“And then in the sprint race, if they want the sprint race for the show and for overtaking and ‘let them race,’ and then you don’t let them race… It’s better not to race.”
Alonso did at least enjoy himself in China, especially on the first lap, when after passing Sergio Perez he looked set to have a go at leader Max Verstappen.
“Yesterday, the same with Lewis [Hamilton]. I was P2 after Lando [Norris] went off. And I said, ‘Okay, I may try and lead the race, at least one lap,’ and today I passed Checo, and I said, ‘Okay, if I can, I will do it again…’ But I had no choice, and no opportunity. Hopefully one day soon.
He added: “The wind direction changed this morning, so in Turn 1/2, it was headwind. I knew that if I was parallel to someone in Turn 1/2, I had the opportunity to attack. So I was very aggressive.
“Then eventually you fall back to your natural position, which is ninth and 10th. We keep repeating the same thing, it’s repetitive, but we see every Sunday that we are the fifth fastest team. But for whatever reason they don’t put together the lap on Saturday. We qualify in front of them, and then there is this fight every Sunday. So let’s see if we improve the car.”
Regarding the charge after his late pit stop he said: “I felt fast, but the positions were not looking that good when I was P10. It was difficult, and it was our only strategy to do. It’s good to have the fastest lap, good to feel the car fast.
“We have a good DRS this year. so it was very easy to overtake. I nearly crashed in the last corner, so I was pushing maximum. Let’s see if we can improve. So far, the first five races show the same trend, we are still missing a good half a second in race pace. And this is something that we need to start focusing on now.”
Adam Cooper F1 