Nico Hülkenberg believes the time penalty that Fernando Alonso received after the race at the Albert Park Circuit for his part in the incident with George Russell is fully justified. The Haas driver, who crossed the line ninth in Melbourne, is also critical of the statement that the 2005 and 2006 world champion gave afterwards.
At the media day in Japan, the focus was still on Alonso’s action, which led to the crash of Mercedes driver Russell in the final lap of the Australian Grand Prix. Opinions about the incident and the associated punishment vary widely, but Hülkenberg believes the time penalty the experienced Aston Martin driver received from the stewards was fully justified. He explains why.
“In my view, when I saw everything, I was honestly not very impressed with Fernando’s tactics,” the 36-year-old German told Motorsport.com. ‘After all, Melbourne is a semi-street circuit. It is quite narrow there, we approach the bend at 260 to 270 kilometers per hour and it is a blind exit. If the flag system or someone for whatever reason reacted late, and one of us had crashed into the side of George’s car (Russell, ed.), the outcome and his feeling would have been very different,” Hülkenberg thinks.
In itself, Alonso’s tactics were not strange, as they are often used by drivers. However, Hülkenberg believes that the Spaniard should not have done this in the much-discussed sixth corner. “It has led to a dangerous situation,” the Haas driver is clear. ‘It’s the wrong corner at the wrong speed. I also think the speed difference and deceleration compared to the previous laps was quite large. Then it is easy as a driver to react too strongly and lose the back of the car, as happened to George,” Hülkenberg says for Russell.
Strange statement Alonso
Aston Martin and Alonso did not understand the penalty for the Spaniard, which dropped him from P6 to P8 in the results of the Australian Grand Prix. The former world champion explained afterwards what exactly happened, but Hülkenberg has his doubts about that explanation. ‘What I also don’t understand is that shortly after the incident he talked about problems with the accelerator pedal, whether it was stuck or not. And later he doesn’t talk about it anymore. Then he says that it is simply standard procedure and tactics. That is not in line with each other,” says the German. ‘It seems like his opinion has changed. I am personally not very happy about this,” concludes the Haas driver.
