MEXICO CITY, Oct 29 : Fernando Alonso doubled down on his criticism of driving requirements amongst Components One’s backmarkers on Thursday as Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon hit again.
Double world champion Alonso, whose Aston Martin workforce are second from final total and one place behind Williams, mentioned after final weekend’s US Grand Prix that there was “a really low degree of driving and lack of expertise” within the backside third of the grid.
The feedback got here after a collision with Albon when the Thai tried to overhaul at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, the place Alonso completed sixteenth and Albon seventeenth.
“I nonetheless really feel the identical,” Alonso informed reporters forward of the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. “I feel everyone knows which of them felt hit by that remark. In order that tells you all the pieces.
“I do not really feel that each one the incidents on lap one, all of the touches, all of the entrance wings that fly round — all these sorts of issues — are mandatory, particularly in case you are preventing for nothing in the back of the grid.
“It is not solely Austin, sadly. I have been unfortunate to be in that space of the race all through the entire season, and I see issues from the automotive that I can’t touch upon right here.”Â
STRONG LEVEL UP AND DOWN THE GRID
Albon, talking in a later press convention, disagreed.
“It is not good to listen to these feedback in some ways. You are racing somebody that you just seemed as much as, however on the identical time, I do not agree. It is so simple as that,” he mentioned.
“I feel the extent is robust up and down the grid. I feel 10, 15 years in the past, the again half of the grid wasn’t the way in which it’s now. We do not have pay drivers (those that pay for his or her seats) anymore. Hopefully, we do not cross paths within the race this weekend.”
Teammate Sainz, a earlier winner in Mexico with Ferrari, additionally felt the present grid was the strongest it has been in recent times and mentioned he rated Albon very extremely and loved racing with him.
“I might say I’ve by no means been within the final third of the grid till this yr,” added the Spaniard. “It is undoubtedly not pleasurable. Not a lot due to the standard of the racing. It is since you are likely to battle individuals who have little or no to lose as a result of one of the best end result you are going to obtain is P20 anyway.
“So there are generally incidents or issues that will by no means occur on the prime of the grid simply because you’ve got much more to lose. I feel normally none of us within the final third of the grid deserves to be preventing for the positions we’re preventing for.
“All of us have loads of expertise to be preventing for podiums, prime fives, wins.”Â
The underside workforce Cadillac have previous race winners in Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez and each driver within the backside 4 groups, aside from Brazilian teen Gabriel Bortoleto at Audi, has stood on the rostrum sooner or later of their Components One careers.
(Extra reporting by Angelica Medina, modifying by Christian Radnedge)