Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who is currently racing for Alpine and will join Aston Martin from 2023, admitted that he was not entirely surprised when he was informed that he would be involved in an unexpected battle against the F1-75 car of Charles Leclerc in the final two laps of the 2022 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Rounding the opening corner, La Source, in the first part of the penultimate lap, Fernando Alonso was informed that Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was just coming out of the pits, after the Maranello team decided to call the Monegasque driver in for a late tyre change with the goal of taking the fastest lap of the Belgian Grand Prix and therefore scoring one extra point.
This is a common strategy used by teams late in the race, but not when the gap against the car behind is not big enough to make sure the on track position is at risk. After returning to the track, Charles Leclerc was passed by the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. The Monegasque was able to recover fifth place thanks to the fresh soft tyres (however without setting the fastest lap of the Belgian Grand Prix), but he again fell to P6 after it was confirmed that he received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Scuderia Ferrari therefore lost fifth place to Fernando Alonso and was not able to win the bonus point for the fastest lap, at the end of a race in which the Maranello team was completely outpaced by Red Bull for the first time in the 2022 Formula 1 season, as Max Verstappen easily won the Belgian Grand Prix after starting from P14, while Charles had to settle for sixth.
When asked if he was surprised at the Italian side’s call to make a final pit stop with Charles Leclerc and go for the fastest lap, the former Ferrari driver admitted that he was – but did caveat his reply: “Yeah, I was surprised,” said the laughing Spaniard, who raced for the Maranello team for five seasons, between 2010 and 2014 – “[But] Ferrari always do some strange strategies. So that was one of those.” – he added.
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Fernando Alonso’s Belgian Grand Prix had started with an incident with Lewis Hamilton on the first lap, as the seven-time former World Champion was forced to retire, but later admitted the collision was his fault.
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