Alonso, “speechless” after finishing last and Sainz takes the blame for the abandonment

It cannot be said that Fernando Alonso was satisfied, because he should not have been, after finishing in a poor 17th position. The Asturian started reasonably well, but the stoppages due to the accidents of Vettel and Verstappen (not so much that of Sainz) came at the worst possible moment.

“You are speechless because we were having a good race again. Our prediction was between sixth and seventh and the safety car came out, which regrouped everyone. We couldn’t stop to put on the yellow ones (medium tires) because it was too early », he explained about what happened with the first one, before analyzing what happened to Verstappen’s. «Another safety car (virtual, in this case) came out and we had to stop yes or yes, but it was too early to put the yellow ones anyway. And in the end out of the points, so the truth is that … without words », he insisted.

The ‘graining’ suffered was not something that came into the forecasts, far from it, and it will be investigated by the Pirelli technicians. Meanwhile, Alonso can only resign himself. “It’s a matter of bad luck. In Jeddah we retired when we were sixth and today we could easily have done seventh. And without yesterday’s problem (in qualifying, when he crashed due to a hydraulic failure in his car), maybe he could see that Max (Verstappen) retired, so losing these two results, because the truth is that it hurts, “he said. .

As hope cannot be lost, Alonso hopes that all the good fortune that is missing from this start of 2022 will return soon. “You have to think about the next race. We have done three, there are 20 left, so we will have a lot, a lot of luck in one of those 20, I think », he wished.

Carlos Sainz left

One day it had to happen. Carlos Sainz has already tasted the painful taste of abandonment as a Ferrari driver, something that has taken 25 Grand Prix to happen. What already looked bad on Saturday became even more complicated this Sunday.

Before the start he had to change the steering wheel due to a problem with the gear lever and it was not fixed, since it got stuck. After starting 9th, he went through the first corner on 14th, something that generated considerable anxiety and, in the end, made him make an unforgivable mistake.

On that change in the steering wheel, Sainz explained that “it was not well configured.” «I had an ‘anti-stall’ problem at the output because a button was not properly placed. I didn’t read the clutch well, the acceleration at the start, and we had problems in the pre-start and at the start that cost us several positions », he related. «From then on I tried to take risks with a hard wheel that was cold, and clearly I made a mistake that cost us the spin and retired. Weekend to forget, problems yesterday and today with things that we have to try not to happen again. For my part, a negative weekend for the mistake I made today », he pointed out, remarkably self-critical.

Although the car is clearly superior to the rest, as shown by the dominance of Charles Leclerc, things are not going as expected for Sainz. “Everything has gone wrong. It is difficult to accept, because we have had many things against us and in the end, for trying to come back too much, with a bit of a hurry, for trying to go forward with a wheel that still wouldn’t let me push… it was my mistake », he reiterated, without hot cloths.