Alonso slams negativity over Monaco strategy

MONTMELO, Spain — Fernando Alonso has defended Aston Martin’s strategy at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, saying there is too much negativity in the sport when a race result swings on a split-second decision.

Alonso finished second to Max Verstappen in Monaco, but had a shot at victory when he was called into the pits as rain started to fall on lap 54 of 78.

Aston Martin fitted a fresh set of medium-compound slick tyres at the pit stop, which then proved to be the wrong choice as the rain intensified on lap 55 and Alonso was forced to pit again for wet-weather intermediate tyres.

Verstappen made a single pit stop for intermediates on lap 55, and analysis of the time gained over the Red Bull by George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton, who all switched to intermediates on lap 54, suggests Alonso could have secured the lead by doing the same.

But speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso said it was easy to make such a decision with the benefit of hindsight and defended his team’s choice of slick tyres on lap 54.

“I think it was the right decision,” he said. “Maybe if you have the crystal ball and you know the conditions, you know who stops and who doesn’t stop, and then finally it rains and you need the inters, then 100% you stop for inters.

“What I don’t like in Formula One is that we always see the negatives and we always see everything very easy from the sofa.

“I tell you an example: if we stopped for inters, this week we would only talk about the wrong decision of Red Bull stopping one lap too late. We would never have thought that Aston Martin was very brave and chose the right tyre, we would only talk that Red Bull chose the wrong tyre and stopped Max one lap too late.

“This is just the mentality of the unlimited search for perfection, which is not possible to reach sometimes.”

Alonso added that more credit should be given to strategists making the right decisions.

“If we took the wrong decision and still finished P2 in Monaco, we will take that,” he said. “Now if we look at the race on TV again, we will stop for inters 100% yes, that was better. But in that moment, why Max didn’t stop for inters as well? He stayed out one lap longer than me but with a different tyre.

“It’s difficult to know, but as I said, the biggest thing is that at every race we never put enough prize to the right things that the teams, in very stressful moments, do. We always spot the one thing that they do wrong and then we go hard on them.”