Fernando Alonso believes Formula 1’s television coverage uses his team radio out of context, taking particular issue with its broadcast of his messages to Aston Martin during the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Spaniard complained Aston Martin had “thrown me to the lions” with an early first pit stop that left him unable to hold off the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, while he later told his engineer to come up with a different strategy as he was losing ground to Esteban Ocon on the straights. However, Alonso disputed that he was angry with his team, instead criticizing the broadcasting of his messages.
“Not angry — it’s the same, the classic thing, the classic FOM radio,” Alonso said. “Completely out of context, in a moment that I’m not sure exactly what other drivers can say when they are behind a car that is slower and on the straight they are pulling away even when you open the DRS.
“Maybe the other drivers say ‘I’m OK, I’m happy to be behind’ but I prefer to be motivated to overtake them on track. I was slower even with DRS open. I called for a different strategy, we stopped, we beat them — that’s the way we do it. We beat everyone on track even if the radio is the highlight.”
The message after his first pit stop was one of the first times Alonso’s been publicly critical of Aston Martin since joining the team but he believes it was an error made because it didn’t react to how strong its race pace was quickly enough.
“I was upset because I think the first stop was too e arly. I think we were fast, faster than what we thought in terms of pace, I was behind the Ferraris, in front of (Lewis) Hamilton, with not too much pressure. Lap 12 we stopped, I think to cover (Yuki) Tsunoda, which was a little bit of a surprise there.