Fernando Alonso has expressed concern over multiple stop-races, saying he isn’t keen on the idea as it ‘doesn’t favour the strongest teams’.
The re-introduction of Pirelli rubber for the 2011 season has seen the Italian company produce low-durability tyres which, intentionally, degrade much quicker than the Bridgestone’s of previous seasons.
This concerns the Spaniard, who compared it to penalties in football.
“From what we have seen so far, degradation is very significant, which means we will have races with lots of pit stops,” he said during a Santander media event.
“I’m not keen on that because I think this increased uncertainty does not favour the strongest teams: it’s as if in football, it was decided to have a penalty per team each half hour in which case Barcelona and Real Madrid would not be jumping for joy.
“However, the situation is the same for everyone: it will be important to be fastest because I don’t think we can make one stop less than our main rivals.”
Meanwhile, the Ferrari driver admitted the running order remained an unknown until the opening races in Australia on March 27th.
“We will only really know where we stand compared to the others when we are in Melbourne,” said the Spaniard.
“At the moment, I am happy because we proved to have a reliable car. If all goes to plan, we will be in the group of teams capable of fighting for the title, along with Red Bull the reigning champions, McLaren, Mercedes and also Renault, who had already made a step forward towards the end of last season. Even Toro Rosso has made significant progress.”
Discussion about this post