Fernando Alonso criticizes Alpine for making 'wrong choices continuously' at 2022 F1 Japanese GP

Fernando Alonso criticized the Alpine F1 team over a failed strategy to pit him late during last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix. The Spaniard ultimately finished P7, the position he started in, owing to a late pit stop.

Alonso believed that the team should've pitted him early when he asked them to do so. Speaking to Motorsport, the driver complained:

"The strategy didn't work for us. We made the wrong choices continuously. First, we stopped the last to put the intermediates, we lost places. Then we stopped too late for the second stop with six laps to the end, and I just finished in the same place that I was. I was asking to pit earlier on both occasions, but today my microphone maybe didn't work."

Alpine sporting director Alan Permane, however, had a different opinion. He claimed that the race ended earlier than thought, which cost Fernando Alonso a place. Permane said:

"Had the race gone to the distance we thought it was going to go, would he have got Sebastian [Vettel]? Yeah. So probably we should have done it a little bit earlier, although it's not easy to say because his tyres were going away as well on that stint. And so in hindsight, yes, we could have. But I don't think we realised quite how easy it was going to be to overtake people."

Alonso was one of the last drivers to pit for intermediates when the race resumed after a long red flag period. The French team denied him a risky double stack, as 'El Nano' later lost places.

The second pit stop was again too late for the driver as he failed to pass Sebastian Vettel by a few hundredths of a second when the checkered flag was brought out.

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Fernando Alonso was aggressive in the final laps, feels Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel felt that Fernando Alonso was a bit aggressive as he tried to overtake the former during the last lap of the 2022 F1 Japanese GP. Alonso, who was on fresher intermediates, clearly wanted to make the move as soon as possible.

While speaking to the media post-race, Vettel explained why the final laps were confusing and difficult for him as he said:

"Well, it was very, very close. He [Fernando Alonso] was a bit aggressive, I would say. But yeah, there was a bit of a confusion because I lost radio, and I looked at the pit board, and I think race direction changed their mind of how long the race is going to go, and I didn't know. I think we got away with it."

This was not the first time the two world champions made contact in the race. Early on, during the start, Vettel went off the track after he turned into Alonso amidst the rain sprays.