Alonso, Russell's post-accident radio team: 'I have problems'

The most discussed episode of the Australian GP

The controversial Alonso-Russell accident in Melbourne (this is how we define it even though there was in fact no contact between the two cars) continues to spark discussion and generate controversy. The stewards present in Australia judged the Spaniard responsible for the Mercedes #63 going off the track and gave Alonso a 20 second penalty which dropped him from sixth to eighth position. The person concerned explicitly criticized the commissioners' decision, receiving full support from his team who however – given the absence of new evidence – decided not to lodge a complaint against the sanction that hit the two-time world champion.

Alonso's radio team

However, radio communications between Alonso and his race engineer in the moments immediately following Russell's exit from the road have now emerged to generate further discussion. The former McLaren, Ferrari and Renault driver in fact complains of an alleged technical problem that would have caused him to lose power. Is this an excuse to justify the 'early' slowdown at turn six, which then caused the commissioners' investigation and the consequent penalty? Possible. However, it is also possible that it was a problem that occurred in the moments following Russell's exit.

Real problem or pretext?

What is certain is that in subsequent reports Alonso no longer mentioned this alleged accelerator failure. No trace of it emerges either in the conversations #14 had with the commissioners to explain his behavior, nor in the post criticizing the penalty published by Alonso on social media. In his examination of him, in fact, the Asturian always refers to his decision to anticipate braking as a voluntary 'tactical' choice and not linked to problems with his AMR24. Below we report the exchange of communications between Alonso and the Aston Martin pit wall immediately after Russell went off the track.

Aston Martin: “You have a clear path behind you now”.
Alonso: “I have accelerator problems”.
Aston Martin: “Virtual Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car. Slows. Slow down and keep the delta positive.”
Alonso: “I can't use the accelerator at full throttle. It's very hard”.
Aston Martin: “Russell reported that Fernando is fine, just for information.”