Fernando Alonso hits out at media's search for 'negatives': "This is just the mentality of F1"

Fernando Alonso has hit out at the media's obsession with always focusing on the negatives. The Aston Martin driver had a strong showing in the last race in Monaco where he finished P2.

There was however a criticism of the team's decision to first pit Alonso on slick tires when rain started falling during the race and then change to Intermediate tires a lap after.

After addressing the same question in the media over the past week, Fernando Alonso called out the media on the insistence over the negative parts of the race.

Taking an example of a scenario where if Red Bull pitted Max Verstappen a lap later while the Spaniard was pitted for intermediates, the Aston Martin driver highlighted how all the news would have been about the Austrian team messing up the strategy.

Calling out the search for negatives every week, Fernando Alonso told BBC Sport:

“Maybe if you had the crystal ball and you know the conditions, you know who stops, who doesn’t stop, and then finally it rains and you need the inters, 100% you stop for inters. What I don’t like in F1 is that we see always the negatives and we all see everything very easy from the sofa."

He added:

“And I tell you an example. If we stop for inters, this week we will only talk about the wrong decision from Red Bull stopping one lap too late. We would never say: ‘Aston Martin was very brave and chose the right tyre.’ We would only say that Red Bull chose the wrong tyre and stopped one lap later. This is just the mentality of F1, the unlimited search for perfection which is not possible to reach sometimes.”

Fernando Alonso backs the team's decision

Admitting that if the team had gone ahead with inters on the very first stop, a win was on the table, the Spaniard continued to back the decision made by the team and said:

“Now, if we look the race on TV again, we will stop for inters, yes, 100% yes. That was better. But in that moment, why Max didn’t stop for inters as well? He kept one lap longer than me but with a different tyre. So if we take the wrong decision, we finish P2 in Monaco. We took that.”

Fernando Alonso, on his part, has had a stellar start to the 2023 F1 season and secured 5 podiums in 6 races. The Aston Martin driver finds himself P3 in the championship and will be hoping to win a race or two this season.