{"id":379256,"date":"2024-03-24T21:21:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T22:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379256"},"modified":"2024-03-25T00:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T00:03:01","slug":"f1-expert-questions-alonsos-extraordinary-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379256","title":{"rendered":"F1 expert questions Alonso's 'extraordinary' act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Aston Martin race strategist Bernie Collins has questioned the legitimacy of Fernando Alonso's<\/a> motives for his behaviour in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the penultimate lap of the race, the two-time Formula 1<\/a> champion slowed suddenly on the approach to turn six.<\/p>\n

Immediately behind him, Mercedes<\/a> driver George Russell<\/a> lost control at turn six, skating through the gravel, before hitting the turn seven wall.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> F1 star hit with costly penalty after terrifying crash\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sainz reigns supreme just two weeks after surgery<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Carnage in Melbourne as Verstappen, Hamilton bow out<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Alonso explained that he had slowed to get a better corner exit while Russell said the move caught him off-guard and ultimately resulted in him crashing.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando<\/p>\n

In the FIA stewards report, Alonso was acquitted of causing the crash but was pinged for a "potentially dangerous" act and altering his driving in an "extraordinary" way.<\/p>\n

The report read in part: "At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person."<\/p>\n

As a result, the Aston Martin driver was given a 20-second penalty and three penalty points on his licence. Alonso fell from sixth to eighth in the race result.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking to social media post-race, Alonso said he was surprised to be penalised.<\/p>\n

"A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars," he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

"At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world we will never be even investigated.<\/p>\n

"In F1, with over 20 years of experience (…) changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tyres, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We have to accept it and think about Japan, to have more pace and fight for positions further up the field."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1771795980867743858<\/a><\/p>\n

Collins questioned the move by Alonso in a video posted to her social media channels.<\/p>\n

She suggested the team would never ask a driver to drastically alter their approach to a corner in that manner and was surprised Alonso went out of his way to do such an act.<\/p>\n

"There was a lift 100 metres earlier, a slight brake application as well, and a downshift. So, 100 metres difference into a corner is pretty huge in F1 terms," the Sky Sports F1 analyst explained.<\/p>\n

"We'd be telling drivers 10-metre differences if there was anything across drivers that they'd be trying to improve on, so 100 metres is a big, big difference in terms of an approach to a corner which obviously caught Russell off-guard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Russell himself saying that maybe could have reacted slightly better to it, but the result still remains where Russell is out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We obviously don't have all the data that the FIA have. They've been very clear that they punished Alonso's actions rather than the subsequent reaction of Russell."<\/p>\n

F1 returns in two weeks' time with the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Aston Martin race strategist Bernie Collins has questioned the legitimacy of Fernando Alonso's motives for his behaviour in the closing stages of the Australian […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379256"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379263,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379256\/revisions\/379263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}