Fernando Alonso frustrated by no action for Lap 1 corner cut in F1 Mexico GP, as retirement from grand prix caught the team unaware.
It was far from calm for Aston Martin’s Alonso in F1 Mexico GP. From the get go, the Spaniard was chasing the FIA on radio after several cars cut corners in the opening lap and retained track position. He felt he should be P11 after Lap 1, but instead he was P14.
Some of his radio messages popped up on the world feed, but a lot of it were not broadcasted where he was critical of the FIA for no action despite pleas. “So I had a good start, in front of Sainz and some other people, they missed turn two and they are three cars in front,” he said initially on Lap 2.
“Yeah, but, yeah, I mean it’s very unfair that I’m in this position after making the corners, you know, so let’s do something. I think it’s three or four cars. Yeah, but we know that they don’t understand the consequences,” he continued on, doing back and forth with his race engineer.
The corner cut was noted by the FIA, but nothing came of it, as Alonso warned on radio. “Yes, but if we don’t recover the places, is that they don’t… understand anything about racing. So this is not possible. That’s simply not possible,” he added further. “I know you are doing everything you can. It is… because they broadcast it all… in the radio that we do, privately.
“Hopefully they broadcast this and they see the turn one, two. Hello?,” he said, when they went for radio check due to cuts. “Yeah, I mean, the race is over, mate. We should be P11. So let’s do our race. They have no idea,” summed up Alonso, after which there was long silence on either side. It is unclear if FOM cut off the radio on broadcast – which includes F1 TV’s onboard service.
While Racefans.net noted that Alonso alerted about brake issues before retiring and that the team called him in hearing his message, the onboard, though, has no such message on F1 TV. There is silence all around when he pitted to retire. In fact, the onboard shows that the mechanics were not even ready to receive him with coolers and jack to lift him up.
In the lead-up to retirement, Alonso let through Lance Stroll but the onboard has no radio message of the same, while the Canadian was said that they informed the Spaniard of the team order. The Spaniard was not the only one on the disappointment list, with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell echoing frustration of non-action for Lap 1 corner cutting.
Post-race, the Spaniard felt the situation was same as Austin where drivers were using the Turn 1 run-off to retain track position. “The front wing [damage] was at the start into Turn 1 with Esteban, but it was not really causing any problem,” said Alonso to media after retiring. “I don’t think the car had different performance because of the front wing, I think it was a minor damage, so no issues there.
“But yeah the brakes were a little bit out of temperature. Always in traffic, we could not really manage much. And at the end, I think the pedal went long, and 40 laps ahead was impossible. I made two places at the start, but then I lost four places by doing the track. There were people just missing Turn 2, Turn 3 flat out, and then they appear like three places in front of me.
“So we were parallel into the corner, and they were four places in front of me at the exit of Turn 3. I thought that maybe some action was coming, but like in Austin going off track in Turn 1, it seems not a problem. It didn’t change much us for us, I think we were not very competitive, yeah, it was like that,” summed up Alonso, who stressed that luck continues to exclude him, especially in Mexico, where he hasn’t finished the last four races.
“Luck is not definitely with me, yeah, but I don’t know what I can do with the brakes,” continued Alonso. “It is different than the engine issue with Alpine in 2022, I think I was sixth or seventh in the race and I had engine problem, I don’t know what I can do there, so waiting for better opportunities and more luck.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-norris-keeps-the-lead-after-four-car-turn-1-battle-on-lap-1.1847076761872075909
Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out