Aston Martin breaks down ‘old fox’ Fernando Alonso’s superior radio game to put rivals on their toes

Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin had a decent outing at the Saudi Arabian GP. The two-time world champion exceeded expectations and put his car on the second row for the race. Alonso found himself being chased by George Russell in the race. However, the Spaniard managed to pull away from the Mercedes. Now, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has praised the 42-year-old for a clever use of team radio.

The Saudi Arabian GP for a simple race in terms of strategy. Most drivers pitted just once during the race. However, Fernando Alonso asked the Aston Martin pitwall for a ‘Plan B’ mid-way through the race. After the two-time world champion had made his scheduled pitstop.

Mike Krack revealed that the Silverstone-based team did not actually have plan B. Rather, Fernando Alonso was simply trying to confuse rivals who could be listening to the team radio. Alonso has the most F1 races in history to his name. As such, the Spanish driver is no stranger to such games in the paddock.

Basically he [Fernando Alonso] asked us for Plan B. But was there a plan B? Fernando is always teasing you, you have to be careful if he is really honest about it... sometimes maybe he does it even on purpose, because he knows that our rivals are listening to him.

Mike Krack told Motorsport-Total

Moreover, Krack labeled Alonso as an ‘old fox.’ The 42-year-old manages to keep his team and rivals on their toes. Mike Krack admitted that the right when the team knew what Fernando Alonso what doing, the Spaniard confused the entire pitwall with his ‘Plan B’ team radio.

He is an old fox, but he always wakes us up. As soon as you think for a moment that you know what he's doing, he opens the radio and says 'what about Plan B?'. So we look at Plan B, but it doesn't end where it ended with Plan B.

Mike Krack praises Fernando Alonso’s performance against George Russell

Krack pointed out that Russell came close to the DRS range behind Alonso. The British driver was less than 1.5 seconds away from the Aston Martin. Mike Krack claimed that Fernando Alonso needed to assess how he could make it to the end of the race while pushing enough to keep the Mercedes at bay during the race.

We had George behind, he had speed and we didn't want to let him into the DRS zone. So it was all the time between 1.5 and 1.0 seconds.

The Aston Martin team boss highlighted that the two-time world champion managed to outperform Russell. Mike Krack reckoned that perhaps only Fernando Alonso could succeed at in this regard. So much so, that Krack was surprised to see the gap made by Alonso ahead of the Mercedes driver. The 42-year-old had certainly adopted a clever approach in his fight with George Russell.

But I think he did it – to leave Russell behind – as probably no one else can. I don't know where that hole came from. In my opinion, he was always aware of the situation.

Fernando Alonso brought home a decent result for Aston Martin in Jeddah. However, the Silverstone-based team might find it difficult to fight the likes of McLaren in the coming races. As such, Alonso’s team would need to get major in-season upgrades over the course of the season.

In case you missed it:

• Helmut Marko claims he contemplated leaving Red Bull in 2023
• Should F1 ban Kevin Magnussen’s blocking strategy from the Saudi Arabian GP?

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