Fernando Alonso has expressed his frustration towards the driving quality of the drivers in the lower part of the grid after an incident with his racing teammate, Alex Albon, on the first lap of the United States Grand Prix of Formula 1. This collision cost the Asturian several positions and caused damage to the bottom of his Aston Martin, complicating the competition for the rest of the race.
The two-time world champion lost a position at the start, dropping from twelfth to thirteenth. Albon, for his part, gained three places with a clean start, placing fourteenth and attempting to overtake Alonso during the first lap. Upon reaching corner 11, Alonso tried to overtake in a dynamic group of vehicles, but Albon also sought his opportunity, resulting in a collision between the two cars.
The contact pushed Alonso towards the outer curb and consequently, he lost four positions. The damage to the bottom of the Aston Martin was evident, as shown by the onboard camera footage from Albon. Despite the damage, Alonso managed to finish the race in twelfth position, but he expressed his discontent in post-race statements.
“This was the biggest damage”, he commented. “We lost more than a second per lap. The car is wrecked; I saw it in parc ferme. Half of the floor is missing. I don’t know how we managed to keep competing with this”.
Alonso, who at one point considered retiring, decided to return to the track after his team changed the front wing. “The car was turning moderately well to the right, but struggling to the left for the rest of the race. We wanted to finish and gather more data”. Additionally, he pointed out that the quality of drivers at the lower part of the grid needs to improve, referring to his incident with Albon.
The race stewards did not find it necessary to investigate the incident, which was deemed a normal consequence of a dispute between multiple vehicles trying to occupy the same space in that turn.
Albon, for his part, gave his version of what happened, stating that there was another vehicle alongside Alonso that had not been visible in his trajectory. Although both drivers suffered damage, the incident emphasized the need for improvement in the driving skills of the drivers in the lower part of the grid.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
