Alonso calls on F1 to be ‘creative’ during delays

Fernando Alonso has called on FOM and the FIA to "offer a show" to spectators after being forced to sit through a farcical rain delay at Monza.

Race Control were reluctant to send the cars out again following Romain Grosjean's crash but there were opportunities in between spells of rain showers to make the track green again and get the drivers to help clear the standing water.

However, what followed instead was a tedious procedure of sending the Safety Car once every 15 minutes for Race Control to then declare the session was suspended.

This remained the case for nearly three hours before a drying-up operation began in order to get Q1 started again.

Throughout this lengthy delay there was a grandstand which gradually emptied with nothing to see and viewers at home left watching commentators fill time.

"It's a shame," said Alonso.

"It's happened a couple of times already and it's bad for the spectators, it's bad for television and hopefully the FOM or the FIA will be creative and find a new way to deal with this kind of situation."

"It's not the first time it happens. From the outside, the spectator wants to see the cars running, and the people on track want to see the cars running, so they need to find a solution.

"The track was fine, it was in a condition to run, only the straight was too wet.

"It's another strange episode and let's see if the FIA or FOM can find a solution to offer a bit of a show while the track conditions improve."

The main cause for the delay was the resurfaced start/finish straight not draining any of the water, making Race Control reluctant to send the cars back out on track,

""The main straight was just too wet," added Alonso.

"The new asphalt was not F1 standards, let's say. We can't have that difference between one asphalt and the other."