Martin Brundle weighs in on Fernando Alonso's Australian GP brake antics.
Martin Brundle says Fernando Alonso used “exactly the same playbook” on George Russell in Australia as he did with David Coulthard back at the Nurburgring in 2003.
Fast forward two decades and Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix saw a similar incident, this time Alonso initially blaming his “battery or deployment” as he braked earlier than he’d done previously into Turn 6 on the penultimate lap, which led to Russell suddenly losing downforce and crashing. “Alonso claimed on the radio that he’d a throttle issue of some kind which is why he was slower than normal on the T6 corner.
“This is what caught Russell out. We’ve seen Alonso do that before in Nurburgring in 2003 against David Coulthard, and he had exactly the same playbook. Except this time, it caused a huge amount of costly damage for a team who could well be on his wish list.”Hit with the penalty that dropped him to eighth place, Alonso spoke out against the penalty saying he was surprised to be penalised for doing what racing drivers should do.
“We never drive at 100 percent every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tyres, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising.” Race Control, though, instead went the virtual safety car in what Brundle believes was a definite red-flag situation.
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