“I think we [Alpine] are unprepared” Fernando Alonso offers a scathing assessment of his consistent reliability problems


“I think we [Alpine] are unprepared” Fernando Alonso offers a scathing assessment of his consistent reliability problems

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso had a frustrating race in Mexico, and it can be said that he has had a frustrating season. The Spaniard has retired 5 times this season, losing valuable points every time, and unfortunately, this weekend turned out to be no different. He was comfortably running in seventh, until his engine went off the rails, and then on lap 65, he had to retire from the race.

As per The Race, speaking after the race, Alonso did not hold back on his thoughts about his issues this season: “Car 14 stopped. For car 14 there are always reliability issues. My level is at the highest of the season at the moment and the results and the standings at the end of the year will be one of the lowest. So it’s a little bit frustrating but there’s nothing I can do.”

https://youtu.be/ELQro30HpKo

Without all these points losses, Alonso may have been leading the midfield pack. Instead, he has 71 points, 11 less than his teammate, Esteban Ocon, and 40 less than Lando Norris. He thinks he lost 60 points: “I think I lost 60 points this year so we add another six so it’s around 66, and obviously all the others benefit so everyone scores two more than what they should.”

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“It’s just amazing that only one or two cars retire every race, and it’s always car 14.” he further added that he might not have scored points that he deserved in half the races: “I think in 19 races, more or less in 50% of the races we didn’t score the points we deserved. Nothing we can do now.”

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Fernando Alonso thinks Alpine have ‘a job to do’ for 2023

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso

Even in races that he hasn’t retired in, he has lost points through other unfortunate circumstances. In the Australian Grand Prix’s qualifying, he had a hydraulic failure while he was on a storming lap, and started 10th. Then a badly-timed safety car (for his strategy) eventually unravelled to him finishing 17th, last on track as the others retired.

Austria was another debacle. He couldn’t start the sprint, after qualifying 8th. He started the race P20. While at one point he was running 8th before his first pitstop, ‘vibrations’ after a pit stop meant he had to dive into the pits again, dropping him down to 18th. He eventually finished 10th. He doesn’t put this down to bad luck, instead saying Alpine are ‘unprepared’.

“I think we are unprepared. The engine cannot finish the races. It cannot be bad luck when you have to change six or seven engines as we did and we’re still not finishing the races. I think they have some job to do next winter. Hopefully not too much.” concluded Alonso, with a reminder of his move to Aston Martin next season.

Aston Martin’s fortunes have been vastly improved since the summer break, and it remains to be seen how big of a step they can take next year with the car, and then in the championship with Fernando Alonso at the helm.

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