Onboard footage shows: It wasn’t vibrations to blame for Fernando Alonso’s extra tyre change at the Austrian Grand Prix after all
There was much surprise when Alpine driver Fernando Alonso pitted two laps in a row at the Austrian Grand Prix after the virtual safety car was activated due to Carlos Sainz’s engine blowout.
The Spaniard started the race from last place on the hard tyres after the technical problems in the sprint, before putting on the hardest compound again on lap 27. The VSC phase offered the opportunity to put on the mandatory second tyre compound to save time.
After the race, Alonso blamed strong vibrations for having to change his medium tyre, which he had just fitted on lap 57, again a lap later. He also complained that this extra pit stop had prevented him from finishing sixth and he therefore only finished in tenth place.
Loose front wheel responsible for extra stop
“Right after the first sector I felt strong vibrations on the tyres, so we decided to pit again. I came out in P14 with nine laps to go and managed to improve to P10,” said Alonso.
However, it is clear from the Spaniard’s onboard recording that, as some had already suspected, an incorrectly fitted wheel was indeed the cause. After pitting, Alonso can be seen eyeing his front left wheel suspiciously before smoke develops on the turn into turn three and it is clear that the tyre is not properly on the rim.
With all his experience, however, the Alpine driver kept his cool and reported on the radio: “I’m coming back to the pits.” When his race engineer then asked what the problem was, Alonso tried to cover it up by saying again, “I’m coming into the pits. “
Alonso saves last point
As the FIA’s sporting regulations stipulate a ten-second stop-and-go time penalty should a car leave the pits in an “unsafe condition”, Alonso was desperate not to attract any attention from the race director and stewards, as points would otherwise have become impossible.
Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer puzzled over the alleged vibrations after the race just like Alonso: “I don’t know what caused the vibrations,” he said. “We came into the pits again and changed to new medium tyres and the vibrations were gone. “
The fact that Fernando Alonso has incredible racing intelligence and is a man of all trades has already been shown by him in Miami this season. On lap 53, he cut short the chicane before the long straight without any visible braking to get Mick Schumacher, who was driving behind him, out of the DRS window.
However, this offence did not go unnoticed and the Spaniard collected a time penalty of five seconds, which manoeuvred him out of the points.
In his last Formula 1 race for McLaren in Abu Dhabi in 2018, he chose a similar strategy. In eleventh place, he was desperate to end his Formula One career with a points finish, but Kevin Magnussen in the Haas ahead of him was too fast for the McLaren.
Therefore, at the end of the race, he cut the chicane in the second sector after the long DRS straight three times in order to catch up with the Dane. Although Alonso tried not to look too conspicuous with slight braking, he still received three five-second penalties, which did nothing to change his eleventh place.
