Sunday December 12th 2021
Alonso attacks race management
Vettel rages over the “fucking shit show!”
Starting position 15 is not what Sebastian Vettel expects from a qualifying. Before the Formula 1 season finale, 34-year-olds are particularly bothered by the fact that the competition disregards unwritten agreements. Fernando Alonso even messes with the race management.
Actually, the deal is clear among the Formula 1 drivers, it even has a name that everyone immediately knows what it’s about. The gentlemen’s agreement. Below that, the drivers agreed that on the warm-up lap in qualifying there would be no overtaking in the final corners. So that everyone can prepare their fast lap and also leave enough space in front of the vehicle so that they don’t get in their way on the hunt for their (personal) best time. But this supposed agreement between men of honor “has long since been settled”, as an exasperated Sebastian Vettel said after qualifying in Abu Dhabi.
The Aston Martin driver was not only annoyed that his 15th place on the grid leaves little chance of a successful season finale (today, 2 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker at ntv.de), but above all from the chaos in the qualification. The four-time world champion described the decisive phase in the second section as a “fucking shit show”, in which he clearly missed qualifying for the top ten: “There are just too many cars in the same place and always the same people, who jostle in line instead of staying in line. “
Vettel did not want to name names (“Just look at the video. They cause the chaos, but they will never learn”), but in the broadcast it was easy to see how the 34-year-old with his Aston Martin in the final Sector of the route even comes to a complete stop. While various pilots overtake. “The same thing has happened in Saudi Arabia, in Austria and many other times this year.” He also sees problematic “that they can get away with it”, so there are no disadvantages or even penalties for pushing forward.
Alonso calls for predictable referees
He doesn’t want to blame the disappointing qualifying, which made it much more difficult to achieve the points in the last race of the year, on the competition alone (“We have to be better with our timing to avoid that”), but “it gives me so much Lost temperature in the tires so that the last lap was lost too. ” With the conclusion: “I should have been more selfish.”
Fernando Alonso has apparently drawn this conclusion for a long time after complaining in vain about the bad habit, especially during the first race weekends: “Then I changed my attitude and played the game.” Because “everyone is doing it”, which is why it has become “significantly worse” in the recent past. The Alpine pilot and two-time world champion criticized race director Michael Masi in particular, who did not intervene in a regulating manner: “He’s too weak there.”
Alonso argues that the pilots need “a referee to protect us and help us”. The race management around Masi has been criticized again and again this season, sometimes because the decisions are too tough, sometimes because the consequences are too lax, but above all because the considerations often seem inconsistent – and therefore unpredictable. “It should be much clearer what a penalty entails and what doesn’t,” says Alonso, but because that is missing, “bad things keep repeating themselves.”