Fernando Alonso radio message after George Russell crash questioned by F1 paddock

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Some inside the F1 paddock are ‘sceptical’ about a radio message from Fernando Alonso after George Russell crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix.

Alonso received a 20-second penalty after the race for driving in a ‘potentially dangerous’ manner before Russell’s incident.

And according to ESPN, there are doubts around one of the claims he made on team radio in the aftermath.

In the final laps of the race in Melbourne, Russell was chasing down Alonso for sixth place.

The Mercedes driver was on significantly fresher tyres and quickly reeled in the Spaniard.

However, on the penultimate tour of the circuit, the Briton lost control of his car at turn six, ran through the gravel trap and hit the wall.

With Russell left stranded in the middle of the circuit, the race finished under a virtual safety car.

The stewards subsequently investigated Alonso’s driving, and found that he’d taken the ‘extraordinary’ action of lifting off 100 metres earlier than he had on any other lap.

That earned him a severe penalty that demoted him from sixth to eighth.

It’s a decision that’s generated controversy, with Alonso taking to X (formerly Twitter) to call it ‘surprising’.

Doubts over whether Fernando Alonso had car issue in George Russell battle

Alonso came over the radio moments after Russell’s off to inform the team that he was experiencing ‘problems on the throttle’.

He said he was applying ‘maximum’ strength to the pedal but something was ‘stuck’.

The 42-year-old didn’t mention the apparent issue when he was addressing the stewards.

And ‘multiple sources’ have doubts as to the ‘legitimacy’ of the claims he made on track.

Some suspect, it seems, that Alonso manufactured an explanation for his unusually slow corner entry.

Alonso endures weekend to forget in Australia

Since joining the team at the start of last year, Alonso has been a beacon of consistency for Aston Martin.

Last year, he bagged 206 of their 280 points to finish fourth in the standings.

He would score in 18 of the 19 races where he reached the chequered flag, with the Singapore Grand Prix the only exception.

However, it was a messy weekend in Melbourne even before his post-race sanction.

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle says Alonso nearly had a ‘massive accident’ in qualifying when he slid into the gravel at the same corner.

Alonso admitted that the mistake left him ‘lacking confidence’, while BBC F1’s Marc Priestley felt ‘disappointed’ with his performance.

His eventual lap time was more than half a second slower than teammate Lance Stroll as the Aston duo locked out the fifth row.

It was only the fourth time during their partnership that Stroll has prevailed on a Saturday.

The Canadian was running ahead on race day before Alonso pounced on a fortunately-timed VSC to pit.

But the final classification ultimately had Stroll finishing two spots ahead in sixth.