Fernando Alonso was not a happy man after the 2024 Hungarian GP qualifying. While he qualified P7, the Spaniard was quite angry in parc ferme as an FIA official called him for weighing. During this process, per a video on Twitter (now X), Alonso can be seen throwing his Aston Martin jacket and cap on the ground, probably in a fit of rage.
The reason behind Alonso’s anger is still unknown. It could be due to the FIA official calling him for the weighing procedure after he had changed.
Per the video on Twitter, Alonso is also talking to George Russell who is trying to calm down the Spaniard. Alonso was quite animated while speaking to the Mercedes driver, venting out his frustrations.
Pas content Fernando de la gestion du drapeau rouge et du parc fermé après le crash de Tsunoda en Q3..et il l’a fait savoir…#rtbfsport #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/R9HvoqFryR
— VIGNERON GAETAN (@VIGNERONGAETAN) July 21, 2024
The #14 driver was already quite angry about how race control managed the red flag situation after Yuki Tsunoda’s crash. The Japanese driver crashed his V-CARB, which brought out the flag with two minutes and 13 seconds remaining in Q3.
At this point, Alonso was on his flying lap and had to abort it due to the red flag stopping the session. While Aston Martin hasn’t been in the best of form, they looked decent in Hungary. The uncertain pecking order and weather gave them an opportunity to qualify as high as possible.
However, with Tsunoda’s crash, they were not able to make the most of a chaotic Hungarian GP qualifying session. On top of that, the FIA officials initially put both Aston Martin cars under parc ferme during the red flag.
However, later they informed them that they would restart the session. As a result, both Alonso and Lance Stroll had to again buckle up, which may have added to the two-time champion’s frustrations.
Alonso criticized the FIA’s “gross error” during the Hungarian GP qualifying
Alonso was quite candid with his feelings about how the FIA managed the red flag situation after Tsunoda’s crash. When they called the red flag, the Spaniard was near the final corner and on a faster lap by a tenth and a half, which could have put him a position higher.
Naturally, Alonso showed his frustrations in his post-qualifying comments and called out the FIA’s mistake of calling an instant red flag. He said, “In Q3… The FIA sometimes gets it right and sometimes makes gross errors. Today they made one because they red-flagged when I was in the last corner, which is surprising”.
Alonso referred to the unspoken rule of letting cars that are past the incident to complete their laps and call double-waved yellow flags at the scene of the incident. However, with the medical light of Tsunoda’s car flashing, that too at the peak moment of Q3 in qualifying, a red flag was more appropriate per Motorsport.com.
The two-time champion was also miffed about the FIA officials putting the cars under parc ferme and then opening it again to restart Q3. Alonso stated that it doesn’t happen often and either way, he did not have a new set of soft tires to gain anything on a final push lap.
