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Fernando Alonso has expressed his disappointment with some of his fellow Formula 1 drivers, labelling them as "amateurs". The Spaniard retired from the race on the opening lap after being hit by Lance Stroll as the cars scrapped for position through the first sector.
Alonso will walk away from F1 at the end of the year, with 2018 proving to be a tough campaign for him and McLaren. In Austin, the double-world champion exited qualifying after Q1 on Saturday despite claiming that he set a strong lap.
Alonso retired early in China: "I couldn't feel my hands and feet"
Alonso: "I looked crazy ten years ago criticizing Honda"
But his race didn't last long as his car suffered major damage when he was hit by the Williams: "No, I'm not upset, just disappointed because I am nine days here in the US to do a race and I do 600 meters of the race and they push you off,'' Alonso said. "So that is the way it is, a little bit unlucky. But it is more a problem for the FIA if they keep allowing this type of driving.
"I say because I drive in other series with amateur drivers in and things like that and there never is a problem. So, there are more amateurs here than in other series. The level is lower. I race in other series, in WEC, and they are very aggressive as well and we have three different categories there, some amateur drivers, and no one crashes into each other. It is another mentality.''
Since the return after the summer break, Alonso has scored a top ten finish on just one occasion. He will be hoping to bow out of the season on a high, stating that he is celebrating every remaining race as they come.
"No, not frustrating,'' Alonso stated in Austin. "If I was fighting for the world championship, then yes. These last races are just a celebration for me, and I'm trying to help the team to score points and we didn't achieve that today.''
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Replies (7)
Login to replymcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Should have been ‘who gave this guy a seat’? Great restraint from Alonso.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
It's true that first lap incidents have been particularly bad this year. It's not always the same guy, but almost every race one of those does something really stupid.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I dont know if I expected things to be worse, but I actually dont think its been as bad this year as it was last year. Or did my expectations maybe colour my opinion?
Bhurt
Posts: 320
If he was fighting for the World Championship and got tangled with Stroll on the opening lap, he should have been frustrated by what would have been a catastrophic qualifying for him.
Having said that, Stroll is a nucklehead.
ringo
Posts: 3,633
there is two classes F1 and F1.5 and alonso drives in F1.6 :)
RogerF1
Posts: 501
Maybe a point here is the general poor capability to overtake relatively freely during the race due to aero, marbles, etc. So, drivers are being gung-ho off the line to make the places that will be much more difficult later? More ease of passing during the race maybe gives drivers option to get through a few corners safely then have a race.
Or again, lower teams have only a chance for a few scrappy points due to the “3 teams take all the cream” that they might as well just go mad at it as they will never get high enough up the grid to actually make a difference? Or, finally there are just a few too many nut-jobs on the grid.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
The point about the top 3 grabbing all the cake is why I wouldnt mind a system with points from P12 and onwards or so.