Fernando Alonso: “There were some incidents that perhaps we need to look at”

Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from the United States Grand Prix with a broken rear wing, but the Spaniard feels the talking points are about track limits and penalties that were and were not applied.

The Alpine F1 Team driver was told to hand a place back to Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi as the two squabbled for position after the Spaniard passed the Italian whilst off the track at the end of the back straight.  The battle with the Italian was far from over as Giovinazzi was then told to hand the place back to Alonso after running off track a lap later to hold onto the place.

However, it was the move by Kimi Räikkönen at turn one that Alonso was unhappy with as the Spaniard felt the Finn passed him with all four wheels off the track.  Stewards deemed that Räikkönen did not need to concede the position as Alonso had run him off the track rather than the Finn going off track himself, much to the disgruntlement of the Alpine driver.

“It was an unfortunate end to today and overall a challenging weekend for us,” said Alonso. “Our race was quite good considering we started from the back of the grid.

“We were heading towards a possible top ten finish after a few back and forth battles with the Alfa Romeos and Aston Martins. There were some incidents that perhaps we need to look at. Two of them were penalised and one was not.

“As we were pushing towards the end of the race the rear wing broke on the penultimate corner and I looked in the mirror and it was visibly damaged, so we had to retire the car. We need to analyse it because at the moment we’re not sure why it happened.”

“It was a tough day for us as a team” – Esteban Ocon

Alonso had joined team-mate Esteban Ocon in retirement, with the Frenchman being forced to call an end to his day with an issue at the back of his car on lap forty.

Ocon had started the day with an eye on scoring points, but first lap contact with Alfa Romeo’s Giovinazzi left him with minor front wing damage, and after that it was a difficult day right up until the moment his team called him into the pits to retire.

“It was a tough day for us as a team with both Fernando and I retiring,” said Ocon. “We suspected we had a problem with the rear of the car and that’s why we retired towards the end of the race.

“Our afternoon was compromised early on with the contact with an Alfa Romeo on the first lap through sector one. The car felt OK, but we had to pit as there was front wing damage and from there it was a difficult race.

“It’s not an easy one to take, but the important thing now is that we reflect and recover as a team. The aim is to come back stronger for the next run of races.”

Esteban Ocon, seen here with front wing damage after contact with Antonio Giovinazzi, was forced to retire at the Circuit of the Americas – Credit: Alpine F1 Team