Fernando Alonso feels 'the most worrying thing is the race direction and the stewards' in F1

Fernando Alonso says F1 drivers are still concerned about the race direction and stewards, despite the sweeping changes made by the FIA in recent months.

Alonso was unimpressed with the way the new director Niels Wittich handled the safety concerns that drivers had expressed at the Miami GP following two heavy impact crashes over the weekend. Speaking to AS, he said:

“Probably the most worrying thing is the race direction and the stewards. With all the changes that have taken place, they haven’t adapted too well and it’s a concern for all the drivers right now.”

Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon both crashed heavily into the concrete barriers heading into Turn 13, sustaining heavy damage to their cars and triggering medical check-ups.

This led to many drivers calling for the concrete barriers to be replaced with Tecpro to ensure driver safety. Their calls, however, fell on to deaf ears and race control ignored the request entirely.

Alonso conceded that incidents on new circuits are common and there will always be room for tweaks after the first race at any venue. He, however, felt that when it comes to safety, action should be taken immediately and not wait for the next year’s event to make changes. He said:

“We have to give Miami time. I give it good marks, although I’m sure there are things to improve and tweak after the experience of the first race. That happens at all circuits.”

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Fernando Alonso wants F1 to further level the field between teams

Fernando Alonso feels F1 still has a long way to go before achieving the goals that it set out to achieve when it introduced the 2022 regulations.

Although he was pleased with the new cars being able to closely follow each other, thereby improving on-track action, he felt that more work was needed in other areas of the sport to make it “more equal”. He said:

“F1 needs to be more equal. Following each other, and being able to overtake, has improved. But there are still huge differences between the teams and that was not the aim of the new rules. All the teams would have common parts and there would be more equality and different race winners.”

Despite the new regulations dramatically improving on-track action, Fernando Alonso was not pleased with the front runners having managed to retain their traditional advantage over the rest of the field.

Pointing out the nearly huge deficit in race pace compared to Red Bull, Ferrari, and the rest of the grid, Alonso felt a further tightening of the cost cap and the introduction of common parts could alleviate the differences.