Alonso wanted retirements for slow cars on formation lap at Sepang

Fernando Alonso believes a number of cars should have been forced to retire or disqualified from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia for stopping on track during the formation laps.

The race got underway after a 40-minute delay due to rain, with two formation laps planned before a standing start in wet conditions. However, a glitch within the FIA-provided software for wet running caused a number of cars to slow or stop on the first lap, causing the starting procedure to be aborted, something Alonso questioned.

“I think I had 50% DNFs this year,” Alonso said. “They never stop the race for us! So there are eight races to go. If we keep this percentage four races we will DNF and we will see four red flags for sure.

“The same thing [went through my mind] that goes through their mind when they see the Aston Martin stop, I guess – sat on one side because they have a problem: ‘Good because you have one car less on the race’.

“I think [the overall situation] has to be explained, but on our side, we try to do our job, try to keep the car running, and probably the rain was very much appreciated in terms of opportunities for us. We even started with the slicks because we thought that the the rain was not there anymore. So, it took quite a long time to restart the race. But I'm sure there is an explanation, we just need to hear it.”

Asked if he felt the situation with the stopped cars being allowed to restart was unfair, Alonso replied: “100 percent.

“This is motor racing,” he said. “I mean, if it's a safety concern, I get it. If there are five cars in the middle of the road or whatever, we have to stop the race and we need to see what's going on. But I think they were out of the race. They were out [and] even [near] the wall. They just had to push it two meters – the marshals – and retire the car like we do in, as I said, 50% of the races.

“It's the first time I see that. Right now I don't have all the information. So maybe there is a clear explanation and and it's OK. I'm not concerned.”

The FIA later explained that a software update was required to be given to all cars prior to restarting, but once racing did get underway Alonso was able to secure Aston Martin’s best result of the season with eighth place.

“I think it is the track,” he said. “I think we've been more competitive this weekend in general, both cars in Q2 and [in the race] fighting in the midfield territory. So overall it was a better weekend. Let's see if we can keep up this pace, especially in Singapore, where we have some hopes next weekend, and then there are some other weeks that you know we are very uncompetitive and we have to accept it.

“So in the weekends that we can score points, the important thing is to execute the race well. [On Sunday], obviously, we started with a slick, so we we put ourselves in some difficulties there. But at the end, it was it was OK after the safety car, we had a new race coming.”