Fernando Alonso says he can’t wait until 2031 for F1 to become a sport again, as he responds to call from FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
With the decision of Aston Martin‘s Alonso increasingly looking like a retirement or another sabbatical, calls are being made at the top to pursue him to remain in F1 and move away when he is doing well rather than at a point, when he is upset with the sport and the direction.
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The FIA President urged him to stay and noted that he will do things to help him and his team Aston Martin Honda to progress as quickly to the front of the field from their deficits. In F1 Spanish GP qualifying, the Spaniard ended up 18th, just ahead of the Cadillac pair.
When asked about Sulayem’s calls, Alonso revealed that he has regular talks with F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, noting that he cannot wait until 2013 for the sport to feel like the pinnacle again. He took the example of Turn 10-12 at Madring to reiterate that the sport has become too easy.
This time he took the name of a journalist to compare that it cannot be him who can match Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in those corners, it should be the Dutchman to make the difference. “I don’t know,” said Alonso to media after F1 Spanish GP qualifying at Madring.
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“I mean, I have a lot of things to go through already, try to make my mind for next year. And I did speak with him, but I speak with Stefano regularly every week because Formula 1 cannot continue in this way. We have to….we cannot wait for 2031 to have a proper sport.
“So I think it’s also my responsibility to help them with my experience to make…whatever we can do to do this kind of things like Turn 10-12, whoever is faster there is okay, it cannot be I don’t know, I don’t want to pick a name.
“[But] it cannot be Michael (journalist, not Michael Schumacher) faster than Max Verstappen if he has more battery because Turn 10-12 is such an incredible corner that it has to be, Max Verstappen making the difference compared to Michael. And at the moment we can’t,” summed up Alonso.
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The Spaniard reckons it is sad for F1 drivers to arrive at a circuit like Madring and unable to do anything from their side on corners like Turn 10 and Turn 12. Again he took the example of the journalist, stating that who can go faster in the corner, shouldn’t be decided by the energy they have at hand.
“I mean, it is sad in a way with this generation of cars to come to very nice circuit like this one, with challenges here and there, like Monumental corner, Turn 10-12 and the driver input is just nothing,” continued Alonso. “Michael (journalist) can drive in Turn 10-12 because you go flat with no K deployment. And then at one point the K comes and then you go fast on the exits.
“But Formula 1 or motorsport in general should be in Turn 10-12, if Michael is braver than me, he goes faster. If I have, more attributes, I will go faster than him. That’s how it should be qualifying. And now it’s just how much SOC (state of charge) I have, I will go faster or slower,” summed up Alonso.
