Baffled Fernando Alonso still questioning FOM’s ‘favourite hobby’
Fernando Alonso lifts his cap.
Critical of FOM’s depiction of his radio messages, Fernando Alonso says the situation isn’t helped when “99% of the people cannot understand” what is being said.
Alonso has had a few issues with how Formula One Management has broadcast his radio messages in the past and previously stated that he does “not know what problem they have” as they don’t depict him in a good light.
“It’s their favourite hobby!” he added. “So, good luck to them.”
Fernando Alonso wasn’t happy with FOM after Suzuka
It was more of the same at the Japanese Grand Prix where an early pit stop dropped the Spaniard from sixth place to running well out of the points.
“You’ve thrown me to the lions by stopping that early, mate,” was the radio message broadcast. “Unbelievable!”
Alonso recovered to finish in eighth place and later clarified his radio message.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he was angry with the team, he replied: “Not angry. I think it’s the same classic theme, the classic FOM radio, completely out of context.”
The Spaniard reckons the situation is not helped by most fans not understanding the context as they aren’t privy to the full driver-team conversation.
“I have no problem at all,” he said in Qatar when asked if he was okay with radio messages being broadcast.
“Obviously, in Suzuka it has been, yeah…It was difficult to get the point of the media.
“So it was one week after Suzuka, saying that I was in traffic after my stop, which I was a little surprised, because I don’t know what negativity is on that, discussing with the team.
“And obviously you have no information about how the weekend goes, you know, the meetings that we have on Sunday morning. Even on the grid, the conversation on the grid on Sunday in Suzuka, we were talking, ‘don’t stop too early, because then with our lack of speed on the staights, we will be in traffic and we will get stuck’.
“So, when the radio comes out, obviously the level of maturity and complexity on the comments, 99% of the people cannot understand.”
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The Spaniard’s team boss also weighed in on that Suzuka radio message, Mike Krack saying he had no issue with his driver’s comments over the radio as he appreciated the passion.
“I think you can listen to the 20 drivers, and everybody’s really hard,” he said as per Autosport. “Everybody’s passionate. If the driver would not be doing something like that, what driver is it?
“So, I think, it’s fine. For us, we take it as a motivation, and it also opens up always a different view of things. So, absolutely fine.”
With five races remaining, Aston Martin are holding onto fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship by 11 points ahead of the fast-closing McLaren team.
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