F1 driver admits he was ‘thrown to the lions’ by team over pit strategy at Suzuka

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Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has admitted he wasn’t pleased with his team’s strategy at Suzuka this weekend.

The Spanish champion’s comments were relayed by The Athletic after a tough weekend for the British team.

After starting the season so strongly, Aston Martin have fallen away in the second half of the year.

Out of the constructors in the top half of the championship right now, Aston Martin have the biggest disparity in terms of the quality of their two drivers.

Fernando Alonso recorded six podiums in the first eight races but has only recorded one top-three finish since Canada.

However, it’s a better record than teammate Lance Stroll, who has had to settle for a best finish of fourth this year.

Alonso managed to score another four points for Aston Martin at Suzuka but wasn’t happy with his strategy.

He’s still clinging onto fourth in the drivers’ championship but with six Sunday races left he’s going to have a serious task holding onto that position.

Alonso upset with Suzuka strategy

Talking about the decisions made by Aston Martin during the race, Alonso said: “I was upset because I think the first stop was too early. I think we were fast today, faster than what we thought in terms of pace.

“I was behind the Ferraris, in front of Hamilton, with not too much pressure.”

When he came into the pits, Alonso was heard saying, “You’ve thrown me to the lions by stopping that early.”

Aston Martin haven’t stood still, but the teams around them have improved at a much faster rate.

The car has particularly struggled in a straight line with Alonso adding: “Friday we were last, Saturday we were last, and today. We knew we were down on top speed, but that was our choice.”

Alonso scraped into the top ten in qualifying in contrast to Stroll who started 17^th, albeit after the shock of his huge crash in Singapore last week.

The Spaniard started brilliantly and avoided a lot of the chaos around him.

However, Alonso wasn’t happy with the strategy used by Aston Martin to cover off Yuki Tsunoda in his home race at Suzuka.

The AlphaTauri should never have been a competitor in the race and he eventually dropped out of the points.

However, that early tyre change ultimately slowed him down and he finished nearly 20 seconds behind George Russell.

Alonso has signed up for another season with Aston Martin and it will be interesting to see how competitive they are in 2024.

They’ll know that with Alonso at the wheel, he’ll extract as much pace as possible out of the car.