Fernando Alonso’s inability to maximize his points haul in the last few rounds of the 2022 F1 season is not due to Alpine’s reliability issues, according to team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
Alonso has made claims that he is performing at an exceptional level this season. The Spaniard also recently suggested that he could have scored as many as 50-60 points had it not been for Alpine’s reliability issues.
This has been refuted by Szafnauer, who believes there are other factors and reasons behind Alonso’s underwhelming points tally this season.
Speaking in an interview after the 2022 F1 Austrian GP, the 57-year-old said:
“It’s not that we’re failing Fernando [Alonso], there are several reasons why he hasn’t scored points. I remember the case of Mick Schumacher, a touch made a hole in the sidepod. His defense in Canada against [Valtteri] Bottas cost him a penalty, just like in Miami.”
Fernando Alonso qualified in P8 for the second Sprint race of the season during the 2022 F1 Austrian GP weekend. He was, however, unable to get going on Saturday and had to start the 71-lap feature race on Sunday from the back of the grid as a result of his DNS.
In his defense of the malfunction at the Red Bull Ring, Szafnauer said:
“Things like what happened on Saturday before the sprint can happen to anyone. It’s not an Alpine problem. We do not know what caused the problem, but everything indicates that it was a problem with the control unit, which is a part that we did not design, but that we bought. Failed on an Alpine car because of our installation? I doubt it. But we must understand what has happened. We have to solve all the little problems, so that they don’t reappear in the car. But you never know what will be next, because if not, it would already be resolved.”
The two-time world champion was able to salvage a point on race day after crossing the line in P10 to take his tally of consecutive points finishes to six races stretching back to the 2022 F1 Spanish GP.
Fernando Alonso agrees with Alpine boss’ claims that a 30-year-old female could be a better driver than him
Fernando Alonso is in agreement with Alpine F1 CEO Laurent Rossi about the possibility of an athletic and fit woman at 30 being better than him in his present condition.
The Spaniard began his F1 career back in 2001 and since then has gone on to become a two-time world champion with 32 wins and 98 podiums. He has now surpassed 2008 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen in the race for the most distance covered by any driver in the history of the sport.
Alpine recently launched an initiative to try and get more women into motorsport and subsequently in F1. In a recent interview, team CEO Rossi pointed out that women are jet fighter pilots and astronauts, before suggesting that a perfectly fit woman at 30 could perform better than their veteran driver.
When asked to weigh in on the Frenchman’s comments in the pre-race press conference at Silverstone, Fernando Alonso said:
“Probably they do! Yeah, there shouldn’t be any reason why not? I feel okay to drive Formula 1 cars, but I’m probably not the strongest man in the world. And yeah, I think the team is doing a lot of initiatives in the last few years, to be more inclusive.”
The 40-year-old added, saying:
So read
Story continues below
“Now, in Alpine road company, 12% of the company are women; in the Formula 1 team is 10 per cent. So still a long way to go. But definitely things are moving in the right direction. So yeah, I’m proud of all these initiatives and about the comments: yeah, probably he’s right.”
Heading towards the 2022 F1 French GP, Fernando Alonso is currently tenth in the World Drivers Championship standings with 29 points to his name after 11 rounds of racing.
