This is what Alonso says about Verstappen not getting a time penalty in Brazil
General
- GPblog.com
Fernando Alonso was amazed by the speed of Lewis Hamilton's W12 on the Interlagos circuit. The Alpine driver said it was impressive that Hamilton won the Brazilian race with more than ten seconds on the grid and 25 places on grid penalties. Alonso also commented on the incident between Max Verstappen and Hamilton in Turn 4.
Mercedes very dominant
"I was surprised on Saturday. I mean, we were all surprised that a driver has 25 places of grid penalty in a weekend and still wins the race. Hamilton's superiority this weekend is clear. It is what it is," Alonso let it be known at a press conference in the presence of, among others Marca. The two-time world champion knows his Alpine has a big task ahead if it wants to fight for wins.
"It's not new in Formula 1, Mercedes have won the last seven championships with this superiority and it is what it is," the Spaniard continued. "It's up to us, up to the rest of the teams, to catch up with them, to improve our package, our engine, our aerodynamics, and so on. Red Bull has done a great job this year and leads the championship [in the drivers' championship], but Mercedes have shown they have no intention of giving up."
Alonso is doing what he can do, but he's not getting a fair chance on the track. "As a driver, it's like playing basketball and there's another basket for you and another for the other teams. They [Mercedes] score their points in a big basket and you have to score points in a smaller basket. You always lose."
No time penalty Verstappen
The 40-year-old driver criticised the FIA on several occasions over the past week. According to Alonso, race control would be inconsistent with its decisions. How does he view the incident between Verstappen and Hamilton on lap 48? "It's very difficult, very difficult. We saw it in Austin. The one time they said I pushed Kimi [Raikkonen] off the track in Turn 1. I did more or less the same thing in Austin in Turn 12 with Giovinazzi, I pushed him off the track a bit, and Giovinazzi had to give me the position back. It's hard to keep an eye on that."