Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso on Thursday spoke out in support of under-fire Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and criticised negative attitudes of sections of the media.
Alonso’s second place at last Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix was his fifth podium finish in six races this year while Stroll, son of team-owner Lawrence Stroll, has suffered successive pointless outings.
“Formula One is very easy when you are sitting on the sofa,” said the 41-year-old Spaniard who is enjoying a rich spell of form this season, leading his young Canadian team-mate by 66 points in the drivers’ championship.
“He has been very unlucky at the last two events.
“But, if we go back to Bahrain, driving with one hand (after an off-season injury) he was very fast. Then Jeddah, he had the exhaust problem when he was in front of the Ferraris in P5.
“Then in Miami, we were risking too much probably in Q1 (by using just one set of tyres) and that compromised the race and in Monaco the debris from Lando’s car — the McLaren — it completely compromised the whole weekend,” Alonso added before this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Alonso added these events made it easy to generate negative headlines even though Stroll was within 1.5 seconds of the leading pace.
“He has provided the right feedback, info and strategy about everything,” Alonso said.
“I really hope for him that he has a little more luck because I don’t think that he’s missing any pace. It’s just opportunistic moments that were not in his side,” he added.
Alonso also hit out at critics of Aston Martin’s decision to fit him with a set of medium tyres last Sunday, admitting if he had taken intermediates at that time when it was beginning to rain, he may have had hopes of winning.
“What I don’t like in F1 is that we see always the negatives,” he said.
“We never put enough value on the right things the teams do in very stressful moments. We always spot one team that do wrong and then go hard on them,” he added.
He insisted his team made “the right decision” given the conditions.
“Maybe – if you had a crystal ball and you know the conditions, you know who stops… But we always see the negatives and we can all see everything easily from the sofa.”
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