Fernando Alonso claims he “expected a strong weekend in Singapore” following a pointless outing for the team
Fernando Alonso’s expectations for the Singapore GP race weekend were thrashed by the team’s lack of pace.
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Fernando Alonso(Via Imago)
The 2023 Singapore GP was a rollercoaster ride for the whole paddock. It was supposed to be all celebrations for Fernando Alonso, who was going to hit the 100,000-kilometer mark in Formula 1 during Sunday’s race. By doing so, Alonso became the first F1 driver to race that ridiculous amount of distance over his 20+ year career in F1. However, the race weekend didn’t really go as planned for the Spaniard.
During an intense qualifying session, Fernando Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll dropped the ball and went on to crash in the final corner during Q1. This led to him and the team making the decision not to race on Sunday, leaving only 19 cars on the grid to compete. However, Alonso struggled throughout the race. He got a 5 second penalty for cutting the pit entry to further add to his misery, leading to a P15 finish.
In an interview, he described his race weekend and what went wrong. “I think we all expected a strong weekend in Singapore, it was not the case,” said Alonso. “We didn’t have the pace that we were hoping for. Too many things [went wrong]: a mistake going into the pit lane, a sloppy stop, traffic all in one race. So a race to forget. We need to look at it because the car was very difficult to drive, very little rear end from the car,” he said.
Fernando Alonso had a 25 second pitstop at Singapore
Fernando Alonso was racing on worn tyres and was not able to muster up any pace to catch up with the rest. After coming in for a pitstop, team’s rear jack failed to engage properly, which led to a loss of 25 seconds. With 17 laps left to race, Alonso was out of the points and had a huge disadvantage. The Two time world champion didn’t really have an ideal grand prix at the Marina Bay circuit.
With Red Bull out of the equation, the racing action suddenly seemed to become more exciting for the fans, and it was evident. Having watched Max Verstappen win 10 races in a row prior to the Singapore GP, Sunday’s race offered a fresh set of faces on the podium, leading to the fans also being entertained. It will be interesting to see if Aston Martin is able to come back from their performance slump this season.
In case you missed it:
- Max Verstappen goes back on statement about his F1 retirement plans after Lewis Hamilton signs new contract with Mercedes
- Aston Martin team boss defends Lance Stroll following poor performances at the Dutch GP, claims “reliability issues” always affecting the Canadian
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)