Fernando Alonso assess Australian Grand Prix grid changes after penalty pain

Alonso in Australia — Photo: © LAT Images

Australian Grand Prix - Aston Martin

Alonso assess Australian GP grid changes after penalty pain

Alonso was hit with a penalty in Saudi Arabia after failing to position his Aston Martin in the grid box

Sam Hall

Thursday 30 March 2023 06:48

Fernando Alonso has given his verdict on changes made to the Australian Grand Prix grid in the wake of his Saudi Arabian penalty.

The Spaniard became the second driver in as many races to be hit with a five-second penalty for lining up out of position following the formation lap in Jeddah.

As had been the case with Esteban Ocon in Bahrain, Alonso was not too far forward in his box but had strayed too far to the left.

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In a bid to avoid a further repeat at the Australian Grand Prix, the FIA has widened the grid boxes by 20cm and placed a central line behind the position to aid drivers on approach.

This latter change has so far only been made to the front few positions, with a decision on whether to persist with this for the remainder of the weekend and beyond to be based on driver feedback following the two Friday practice sessions.

Asked if the changes will help, Alonso said: “The central line, I don’t think so.

"You approach the box looking sideways, so you are not looking forward – that is the biggest difficulty.

“The 20cm will help, I guess. There are going to be some circuits – maybe Monaco or Imola, that you start a little bit sideways anyway because if not, you crash if you start just straight.

“We will have to see how we apply the penalties and things like that in those races.

“But no one wants to get a penalty for the start.

“Also, I think the FIA doesn’t want to have any problem with that because there is not a performance advantage, as long as you don’t go too far forward.

“Hopefully, we will avoid anything from now on.”

Alonso "made a mistake"

F1 cars are bigger than ever at present with super-size tyres and wheel brows making it incredibly difficult to see out of the car.

Questioned how difficult it is to see the grid box in the current cars, Alonso added: “It is difficult and apparently this year, it is even more because in two races to have two penalties is a little bit strange.

“In my case, it didn’t change much from last year.

“It is difficult and we are very concentrated on the yellow line to not go too far forward, so you approach the box not looking at the box, you are looking at one side of the cockpit, so maybe that is a little bit of a distraction.

“I made a mistake there, so we will try to be more focused on the box this weekend and avoid any penalties.”