According to Brundle, the Aston Martin driver did not behave perfectly when trying to defend his position against Mercedes #63 during the F1 race in Australia last Sunday.
Alonso claimed he was facing battery issues and believed he was unfairly penalized for his aggressive yet fair race. However, both the stewards and Brundle disagreed with his perspective.
In his column for Sky Sports F1 after the Australian GP, Brundle analyzed the incident involving Alonso and Russell. He stated: « Alonso managed to overtake Russell thanks to a quick pit stop during the virtual safety car period caused by Hamilton’s car breakdown. Russell was closing in and was preparing to overtake for several laps. »
Brundle added: « Alonso reported on the radio that he had a throttle problem, so he was slower than usual at Turn 6. Russell was clearly pushing to be within the DRS double assistance range on the two following straights. A true racing driver never enters a corner expecting the driver ahead to unexpectedly slow down. That’s not how racing works. »
The 64-year-old commentator then joked: « Alonso put on his angelic halo and went to the Race Stewards to explain how he planned to approach turn six differently to get a better exit speed, including braking earlier and downshifting. »
« That’s what caught Russell off guard. We’ve seen Alonso do this before at Nurburgring in 2003 against David Coulthard, using the same tactics. However, this time it resulted in significant damage for a team that could have been on Alonso’s wish list, » explained Brundle.
« Fernando’s argument is that changing racing trajectories and sacrificing entry speed for a better exit is part of the art of motorsport. He believes that Russell’s accident was caused by the gravel run-off area, not by his own actions. Furthermore, one cannot expect a driver to make every lap identical while managing countless other variables, » Brundle elaborated.
« Personally, I have no doubt that Alonso intended to surprise Russell when they entered a clear overtaking zone, but I do not believe he intended for the collision to be so severe, » Brundle concluded.
As a result of the incident, Alonso received a drive-through penalty, which added 20 seconds to his race time and dropped him to eighth place in the final classification.
