Hülkenberg criticizes Alonso for his maneuver in Melbourne

The debate over George Russell’s off-track excursion in Melbourne continues to make headlines. For reference, Alonso was given a drive-through penalty, which turned into a 20-second penalty for the way he slowed down Russell as they were fighting for sixth place.

The FIA race stewards deemed that Alonso had driven in a potentially dangerous manner by slowing down 100 meters earlier than normal, which they believe contributed to Russell losing control behind him and taking his Mercedes out of the race.

After the incident, the Spanish driver had received the support of his team as well as from former drivers like Damon Hill. Alonso himself <was not in agreement with this sanction which he deemed too severe.

This racing incident should be mentioned during the traditional drivers’ briefing, at Suzuka.

For Hülkenberg, Alonso chose the wrong turn.

The Haas driver is particularly critical and shares the view of the Melbourne stewards. He believes that the Aston Martin driver was actually wrong to drive in that way.

My personal point of view, when I saw everything, I wasn’t very impressed by Fernando’s tactics there, to be honest, he explains to Autosport’s microphone.

« Melbourne, after all, is a kind of urban circuit. It’s quite narrow there, approaching the corner at 260-270km/h, and it’s a blind exit. And if, for some reason, the flag system or someone was late and one of us had taken out George, I think the outcome and how he feels could have been very different as well. »

He explains that even though it is not an unprecedented fact in Formula 1, the danger should not be underestimated. « So I think that even though this tactic is quite common in F1, in this particular turn, at this speed, with a blind exit, I don’t think it’s the right turn to do it, and it created a fairly dangerous situation. »