Steiner hits back at Alonso after qualifying incident
- Published on 02 Sep 2018 13:04
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says that Fernando Alonso is in no position to criticise other drivers following the current career situation the Spaniard finds himself in. Alonso and Kevin Magnussen were involved in an incident during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday.
As the drivers were gearing up for their final laps at the end of Q2, Magnussen passed Alonso into the final corner, before Alonso sped up to try and re-take the track position. Both men were on their final hot lap as they went side-by-side into the first corner, wrecking both of their laps.
Alonso criticised both Magnussen and his teammate Romain Grosjean, who was uninvolved in the incident: "There are many classes of drivers and then there are the Haas ones, who have the third or fourth-best car of the grid and are out in Q2."
Steiner has lashed back at Alonso, stating that the double-world champion has no place to criticise other drivers due to where Alonso is in his career. The Spaniard has failed to win a race since 2013 having had a lack of competitive cars.
"Fernando went to McLaren. McLaren shouldn't be fighting to get out of Q1," Steiner said on Saturday. "So, I cannot help him there. I didn't make the decisions. He can talk for himself not for the others, that's a good starting point in life.
Steiner admits that he feared an accident when Magnussen and Grosjean emerged from the garage behind Alonso: "I saw them [Haas drivers] going out behind Alonso and that was like, 'Here we go...' but you don't want to say anything because it seems like you're paranoid, and then it happened.
"I think there is a trend there, but I think Alonso had nothing to lose and we had something to lose. On [Alonso's] best day, today, they couldn't catch us. Even with the best slipstream ever it was impossible for him to catch him. If Kevin passed him before the Parabolica he must have had a reason."
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (5)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Hit back all you want, it wasnt exactly a good move from KMag, reinforcing my opinion that he is a talented and fast driver trapped in bad habits.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I agree. I think he was unfairly dropped from McLaren but has since developed some terrible destructive habits. Talent and potential? Sure. But the same was often said of Pastor Maldonado
Wothan
Posts: 8
Looking on a video, Kmag passes Alonso quite a distance before Parabolica.
Alonso was weaving and braking to get the tempertures up and held Kmag off, so KMag had to pass him in order to get a good start out of the parabolica.
Just after KMag passed Alonso, Alonso sped up to slipstream KMag and as Steiner points out - even on a his best day Alonso would not be able to keep up with KMag.
So honestly.... Alonso had nothing to loose, but wrecked KMags chance to get into Q3.
May I ask....
If Alonso is such a big talent, why has he not managed to get into a better team. And now where he is tired of racing in a team with poor performance, why don´t anyone else want to hire him ?
He is definitly a good racedriver, but not a good teamplayer.
As KMag rightfully said... He think he is God. He cannot accept that other drivers not simply let him pass.
jj284b
Posts: 22
he overtook him exactly at the mark 100 at the start of Parabolica... Alonso had no space to create gap because of it...
Wothan
Posts: 8
There was plenty of space.
On the video I saw, tere was a camera on Alonsos car pointing rearward. You could hardly see the car behind Alonso, so far away was the next car.
Offcourse he could use KMag as a tow, but there was nothing legit in overtaking through turn 1 and 2.