F1 News: Fernando Alonso On His 'Angry' Japanese GP Radio Message - "Throwing Me To The Lions"
Fernando Alonso was quite frustrated with his AMR23 F1 car due to a lack of straight-line speed during the Japanese GP, thus prompting him to vent his frustration to the team on the radio. But, the 42-year-old driver thinks his messages were taken out of context.
His frustration was heard several times, especially on the team's aero-setup choices for the GP. Fortunately, the soft tires and Sergio Perez's crash with Lewis Hamilton in the opening lap gave him an opportunity to shoot forward into sixth place.
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However, the team pitted him way earlier in lap 11. Eventually, Alonso struggled with the straight-line speed in his AMR23, thus prompting him to send out the radio message "throwing me to the lions stopping that early".
When asked by the media about his reaction, the Spaniard disagreed that he was angry on the radio. On the contrary, he expressed that any driver would be frustrated in such a situation. He told Motorsport.com
"Well, not angry.
"I think it's the same classic theme, the classic FOM radio, completely out of context.
"I'm not sure exactly what other drivers say when they are behind a car that is slower and on the straight, they are pulling away even when you open the DRS.
"Maybe they say, 'I'm okay, I'm happy to stay here and to stay behind'.
"But I prefer to be motivated, to overtake them. On track, as I said, I was slower even with the DRS open.
"So I called for a different strategy, we stopped, we beat them. So that's the way we do it. We beat everyone on track, even if the radio is the highlight."
Speaking of his "lions" comment, Alonso explained that they stopped too early after 11 laps. But in the end, it somehow benefitted them. He explained:
"I think we were fast today, faster than what we thought, in terms of pace," he said. "I was behind the Ferraris, in front of [Lewis] Hamilton with not too much pressure. I think in lap 12 we stopped. And I think it was to cover [Yuki] Tsunoda, which was a bit of a surprise there.
"After that stop, obviously, the race is very long from that moment onwards.
"Maybe that was a mistake. But easy to say now. I think arguably the final result would be P8, after the top teams. So it didn't change much in our race.
"I was upset because the first stop I think it was too early. I didn't argue. I knew that we stopped too early. And it's not a problem. Sometimes we benefit."
When asked if he questioned the team's incorrect decision on their choice of tires, he added:
"Sure. I think we had two hard tyres, and the Ferraris they had only one.
"We tried to anticipate the first stint, the first stop, you have to force them as well to go early. So I understand the strategy. So there is nothing wrong with it.
"But when you have a very slow car on the straights and you are into traffic, it can be that there are moments of rage that you lose momentum. It happened today, but I'm perfectly fine."
