Alonso: Drivers need to learn respect

Fernando Alonso believes young drivers need to learn to respect the rules from an early age in order to avoid of repeat of Belgium’s carnage…

Fernando Alonso believes young drivers need to learn to respect the rules from an early age in order to avoid of repeat of Belgium’s carnage.

The double World Champion, in his 11th season in Formula One, was taken out of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix by Romain Grosjean, who was contesting just his 19th grand prix.

The Frenchman crashed into Lewis Hamilton causing a knock-on effect in which Alonso was one the innocent victims. And although the Spaniard retired from the race he was lucky to avoid serious injury as Grosjean’s Lotus narrowly missed his head when it was airborne.

The Ferrari driver has now called on lower formulae to take a harder line on youngsters who breach the rules in order to best prepare them for Formula One.

“Certain drivers should try and take fewer risks at the start,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a tendency in the junior formulae, but it would be better, if right from the start of their career, they got used to respecting more strictly the rules relating to behaviour on track.”

Grosjean’s behaviour, which earned the Frenchman a one-race ban, could have consequences that reach further than Sunday’s outing as he cost Alonso, who is fighting for the Drivers’ title, a chunk of points.

The Spaniard went into Sunday’s Belgian GP with a 40-point lead in the Championship which is now down to just 24 points.

“What happened is a shame because I think a podium was within my reach,” said Alonso.

“But we paid a high price through bad luck and luck owes us now. Let’s see what happens in the rest of the season.

“We lost a bit of the advantage we had over Vettel, (Mark) Webber and (Kimi) Raikkonen, but we have lost nothing to Hamilton who, given how the McLaren went, is possibly our most dangerous rival.

“Now we go to Monza, Ferrari’s home race.

“Traditionally we are always strong there so let’s hope we can have a nice weekend and give our fans something to cheer about, making up for some of the advantage we lost.”