In an interview with the media yesterday, Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has questioned whether Fernando Alonso should have given a place back to him, as well as team-mate Sebastian Vettel, at the start of the Singapore GP after the Ferrari driver cut the first corner.
In a near carbon-copy of his launch from the left-hand side of the grid in last year’s race, Alonso was straight on the cars ahead of him on the grid at the lights and keeping to the outside on the approach to Turn One as the two Red Bulls battled for position on the inside.
However, although fractionally ahead of both Vettel and Ricciardo into the braking zone, Alonso locked up and went straight on across the copious run-off area that sits on the outside of Turns One and Two, returning to the track behind race leader Lewis Hamilton entering Turn Three.
And although the Ferrari ceded position to Vettel soon afterwards, Alonso kept ahead of Ricciardo, who was left to ponder afterwards whether he should have been given a place too. In his interview with the media yesterday, Ricciardo believes that the situation is a tough one to call but should have maybe given the place back. Ricciardo stated the following:-
‘It’s a tough one. Obviously he went a fair way off and gave it back to Seb. It’s like if he didn’t brake that late would he have been behind me? It’s a tough one.
‘The pros of these run-offs are that it’s safer, which is great, but the cons are people get away with mistakes and errors. If that was Monaco he would have been in the wall.’
As Ricciardo says, it is a tough call. But as he rightly says, Alonso went a fair way off the track and handed the position back to Vettel straight away in order not to come to the attention of the stewards. And I would agree with what Alonso did there and not many drivers would have done that during a race where your aim as a racing driver is to get the best position possible.
However, you can understand why Ricciardo is questioning this too. If Alonso would have gone off even more, then would he have to have given a place back to Ricciardo too. As Ricciardo states, the run offs are safer and easier to get back on track, but if it was a track like Monaco, then Alonso would have been punished for that mistake.
But I would have to agree with Ricciardo. He is right to question what happened with Alonso during the race and if Alonso would have gone off even more, he would have had to give the place back to Ricciardo. But with the way Alonso went off and then given a place back to Vettel and not Ricciardo, it is just too close to call.
But as it transpired, both Vettel and Ricciardo finished ahead of Alonso at the chequered flag after opting to make one less pitstop than the Ferrari after the Spaniard had jumped the former in the second pitstops. And I am sure that both Red Bull drivers would have been happy with that after putting in a strong performance over the weekend in Singapore and that is what matters at the end of the day.
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