Fernando Alonso, who chased Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the last lap of the race with a DRS malfunction thinks that Leclerc just got lucky with the P3 finish. The Aston Martin driver believes that Ferrari would struggle more in hot races, for instance, the upcoming Miami Grand Prix.
In the early stages of the race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a safety car incident led most of the drivers on the grid to take a pit stop. Alonso believes that this early pit stop helped Ferrari in getting lucky and that’s how they were able to manage their tire degradation as they switched to hard tires.
The 2-time world champion explained that the hard tires had less degradation than expected at the Baku City Circuit. He further explained that even the temperatures dropped a little as the race neared its end, so everything ended up being in Ferrari’s favor.
Fernando Alonso warns Ferrari about Miami
Furthermore, Alonso explained, “I think on the medium tires, the Ferraris had massive degradation in the first stint. So, in a normal hot race, I think they will struggle more. Today, was good for them, but Miami will be a different thing.”
Regardless of how things turned out for the Aston Martin team in Baku, Alonso is hopeful for the team. He admitted that the team was not fast in Baku due to DRS problems but they were close to the Ferraris who had the perfect weekend.
“I think we are very aware of the situation of the team. We are in a situation that we didn’t expect to be in, and we have a lot of talented people back in the factory, but we’re still a small team compared to the rest. The job everyone has done is extraordinary,” he further added.
Alonso mentored his young teammate
During the race in Baku, Alonso suggested a certain brake setup to his teammate Lance Stroll, which got the fans drooling over the bromance between the two. But as soon as he advised Stroll to defend himself against Lewis Hamilton, Stroll made a mistake and went wide giving Hamilton the chance to overtake him.
Following the incident, Alonso’s suggestions were dubbed as ‘El Plan’ by fans as it led Stroll to a mistake. However, after the race when Alonso was asked about the team camaraderie, the 41-year-old revealed that he would leave the team in a few years but Stroll will lead the team for 10-15 years, so he just wants to help the young driver as much as he can.
