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Fernando Alonso received praise from former Red Bull driver David Coulthard for his heroic drive at Austin.
The Alpine driver had a huge collision with Lance Stroll midway through the race that left him with a damaged car. He then had to make his way from the back of the grid to P7 to finish inside the top 10.
David Coulthard lauded the motivation and steely commitment of Fernando Alonso and admitted that the lesser drivers would have just parked the car after the crash. Speaking to Channel 4 about the crash, Coulthard said:
“I think a lesser driver might have just parked it up. They would have been ‘well I’ve been in the air, I’ve bounced off a barrier, I should retire the car’ but he’s just not part of his mindset. That’s why he’s committed to Formula One going forward at 41 years old. That’s why he’s still a desirable driver.”
In an interview with DAZN post-race, Fernando Alonso admitted that he was a bit scared after the crash. The Alpine driver revealed that he was still feeling the after-effects of the crash after the impact left him a bit shaken. He said:
“When I was in the air, I was a bit scared because it was very dangerous. When I landed on the asphalt, I thought it was race over. It was my best race of the season, but the fear is still in my stomach. After the crash, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the race. I just wanted to finish the race.”
Alonso, however, was penalized after the race with a 30-second time penalty as the team let the car run in an unsafe condition. Due to the penalty, all the hard work done by the Spaniard was negated as he dropped out of points.
The French team released a statement on social media saying that they will protest Fernando Alonso's penalty. The statement read:
"BWT Alpine F1 Team is disappointed to receive a post-race time penalty for Car #14 from today’s United States Grand Prix, which unfortunately means Fernando moves to outside the points-paying positions. The team acted fairly and deemed the car remained structurally safe as a result of Fernando's incident with Lance Stroll on lap 22 of the race with the right-side rear view wing mirror detaching from the chassis as a result of accident damage caused by Stroll."
It continued:
"The FIA has the right to black and orange flag a car during the race if they consider it unsafe and, on this occasion, they assessed the car and decided not to action the flag. Moreover, after the race, the FIA technical delegate considered the car legal."
Fernando Alonso feels the protest will indicate the direction F1 is going
Fernando Alonso took to Instagram and wrote that the results of Alpine's protest will show the direction that the sport is taking when it comes to rules and regulations. He wrote:
"It's one of those rare times in sport, that I feel we are all on the same page and share the same opinion towards rules and regulations. Therefore, Thursday is an important day for the sport that we love so much, as this decision will dictate if we are going in the right direction for the future."
It will be interesting to see the decision following the protest and whether Alonso's penalty can be reversed.
