Category: Formula 1

The Spaniard appeared set to re-sign with Ferrari, but management then became aware that Lewis Hamilton was potentially available – the Briton’s latest two-year Mercedes contract actually only containing a fixed one-year term with an option for another season.

With Ferrari president John Elkann and team principal Fred Vasseur able to convince Hamilton to join as team-mate to Charles Leclerc, Sainz has been left without a drive.

While the three-time grand prix winner is highly rated, Mercedes has placed Max Verstappen and junior single-seater star Andrea Kimi Antonelli as its top two targets.

Alternatively, moves to Aston Martin and Red Bull are plausible.

“[I’m] talking obviously to a few because that’s what my management team and myself should do when I don’t have a job for next year yet,” said Sainz, who won the Australian Grand Prix last month.

“So, we’re talking to pretty much all of them.

“It’s just a matter of going more into detail and seeing the more realistic options and what are the best options for me and for my future, which I don’t have any news for you, nothing to say.

“The only thing I would say is that obviously, it’s time now to speed everything up a bit and hopefully we can get it sorted sooner rather than later.”

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Despite Carlos Sainz Sr having won the Dakar Rally with Audi earlier this year, it is thought that Sainz Jr is less keen on joining the manufacturer in time for its 2026 F1 entry.

Meanwhile, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has indicated that his camp will wait until closer to the summer before locking in its new driver line-up.

Alonso “very happy at Aston as “zero chance” Verstappen leaves Red Bull

Sainz’s compatriot Fernando Alonso reckons there is “zero chance” Verstappen will leave Red Bull despite the turmoil engulfing the F1 team’s hierarchy.

Alonso has resisted pledging his future to Aston Martin, instead highlighting that he is the only one of three F1 champions on the grid who is available for 2025.

This could be because he is making a play for a Red Bull or Mercedes seat.

Alonso has also indicated he wants to resolve his future before the summer but has poured cold water on replacing Verstappen, saying: “If Max leaves Red Bull, maybe that has an impact [on my future]. But I think there is zero chance of that happening…

“What I want to do is just concentrate on my stuff – I’m here just [for] this race and before summer trying to make a decision of if I keep racing or not, and if I keep racing work where will be the best possibilities.

Asked about progress at Aston Martin, Alonso continued: “I’m very happy. I think I was happy last year, and I am still happy now. I feel good with the team. I would love to be in a stronger position.”

Amid rumours that Aston Martin has made a lucrative offer to sign Red Bull chief technology officer Adrian Newey, Alonso added: “There is no other team in the paddock with the ambition and the plans for the future that Aston has.”

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Everything You Need To Know

With McLaren locked in a tight battle behind Red Bull with Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin, grid positions have become increasingly critical in deciding the outcome on race day.

Norris has confessed that qualifying is the area of a race weekend that he isn’t especially happy with, and suggested the need for a change of approach to help McLaren hit its targets in 2024.

Having felt that he was on top of things with the previous generation of cars that were replaced by the current breed of ground effect machines and bigger tyres in 2022, Norris says he’s found it more difficult to deliver his full potential in qualifying.

Whereas before he could go into full attack mode to extract peak performance over a single lap, Norris finds that being so bold now results in the car getting loose and shedding laptime.

Speaking ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix about the issues he is facing, Norris said: “In qualifying, I’ve always been wanting to push quite a bit more in certain areas and kind of want to go out and just be attacking. And I have to do the complete opposite.

“It’s a hard one to get my head around because I want to go out and find another level in qualifying, and you just can’t do that with these tyres and with our car. You almost have to drive it the opposite way.

“So there’s something, almost from being used to the cars a few years ago, that’s kind of punishing me now and not adapting quick enough. But that’s something that’s up to me.

Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“That’s my job to adapt and to do a better job on, but also just with how our car is, how you have to drive it, it continues to be quite a tricky car to drive.

“To execute a perfect qualifying lap every single time, it’s not an easy thing to do. But it’s something we’re working on.”

Norris is no stranger to having qualifying troubles, especially when some wild moments in Q3 laps – like in Abu Dhabi last year – hurt his chances of securing better grid spots.

He says the issues now are more related to the feeling that he needs from the car to understand where its limit is – which isn’t made easy by the fact so much comes from instinct.

“If you ask me now, ‘how do I drive a low-speed corner’, I’ve got no idea, I don’t,” he said.

“One day it’s like this; the next day it is like that. I struggle with just the confidence of knowing exactly how to improve in all cases.

“When it does click, it clicks, and I can have a good quali. But yeah, I just lost a little bit of that feeling over the last couple of years of going out in quali and attacking and putting in the laps that I want to put in.

“It’s hard to make myself not push and not be attacking when you’re competitive and you want to go for a better lap.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Erik Junius

Last year, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella suggested that a lot of Norris’s qualifying problems could be helped by a change of mindset in not attacking at 100% all the time.

But Norris thinks that things are not quite as simple as that, as different circumstances require different approaches.

“It’s like I can’t even drive at 100%,” he said. “100% works one lap in 10.

“So, when you want to go into Q3 and put your best lap on, it might be that one lap you have to drive at 98% all of a sudden. It’s just a complicated thing, and difficult to be on the limit.

“Depending on a couple kilometres an hour wind, or the tyres being a bit hotter or a bit colder, it changes how much you’re able to push in every single corner. So, you have to think of these things.

“Like, okay, the winds changed this little amount, it means I have to brake one metre earlier and you have to do this. And it isn’t an easy thing to be on top of all the time.

“It’s stuff I’m working on, stuff I’ve improved a bit over the last couple of weeks. Last weekend [in Australia] was a bit more of the indication, the first indication of, okay, when it clicks, this is what we can kind of do.”

Norris has devoted some time in recent simulator sessions to addressing the qualifying issues but says that the factory environment is not ideal for offering a repeat of the emotional pressures that are present in real life qualifying.

“It’s tough, because not always is it the best correlation,” added Norris.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“There are certain techniques and abilities of trying to drive relaxed. Those are the kind of things you can do on the simulator.

“But recreating that exact emotion of when you’re in the car, and you’re going for a quali lap, it’s not easy to replicate such a thing on a simulator.”

Ultimately, Norris says that there is likely no magic bullet solution to his situation. He accepts that perhaps a few mistakes along the way, and a bit less obsessive thinking over it, are what is needed before he finally achieves what he wants.

“A bit of it is trial and error, of just trying to make it a normality,” he said. “The thing is when I drive, I drive so subconsciously, that the less I think of driving, the better I drive.

“If I just go out, and I’m watching the grandstands, this is normally when I’m doing a better job. But I’m naturally just going out and pushing.

“So, when you have to try and change your subconscious and try and just chill, it’s not an easy thing to change. That’s something that just gets developed over the years. And it’s not easy to just revert on.

“It’s just drifted away from me probably over the last year and a bit: the older regulation, it was easier to drive and to find the limit.

“Every day is a new day, there’s always new challenges and new issues. But that’s part of it; it’s the same for everyone. I just think that at times it’s been tricky with our car.

“But my job as a driver is to do the best I can on adapting to it myself as well.”

The Silverstone-based squad has been in the chasing pack behind Red Bull this season, but its prospects of putting up a better fight against Ferrari and McLaren have been hurt by its car not being as competitive in races as it is in qualifying thanks to tyre management struggles.

It is an area that the team has been focusing hard on in the early stage of the campaign, with driver Fernando Alonso praising an “aggressive” development programme that has been unleashed to help improve matters.

For the Japanese Grand Prix, the squad’s AMR24 features changes in two key areas – a sidepod revision that appears to be heavily influenced by Red Bull, plus changes in the floor area.

Asked about if the changes were aimed at pure performance or to help improve its tyre degradation issues, Alonso said: “They are both linked. More downforce will address also the tyre degradation we have.

“So far we have been very aggressive on the development of the car. [There was] a new part in Jeddah on the front suspension, a tweak on the front wing in Australia and now another package.

“Every race we’ve been driving a different car, which is a good sign of what we want to achieve this year – being very aggressive off track.

“Last year, we learned a lesson, starting very good and then not changing the car enough was painful in the second part of the season.

“This year, hopefully we are a little bit stronger on the second half compared to the first half. But let’s see.”

What has changed

Aston Martin AMR24 sidepod and floor comparison

Photo by: Uncredited

Images from the Suzuka pitlane show the new sidepod has a swage line etched into the upper forward corner of the bodywork (red arrows).

This is similar to a feature seen on the Red Bull RB18 and RB19 which found its way onto other cars as those teams transitioned to a downwash ramp-style bodywork.

The contouring helps to alter the passage of the airflow in this region, providing better engagement between the sidepod’s flank and upper surface, with the length, transition and shape of the gulley also altered as part of this update.

Several changes have also been made to the floor’s edge wing, whilst the rear floor deck has also been modified. The team has followed a similar path to its rivals, with the rear floor cut-out deleted and a smooth edge transition used to form the rear deck section (see inset for comparison).

Aston Martin AMR24 front wing detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The edge wing is now much more twisted behind the straked section (blue arrow), as changes also appear to have been made to the floor geometry alongside, both on the upper surface and perhaps more crucially to the underfloor.

The rear section of the edge wing, which had previously snaked its way under the rear floor cutout, is now folded over into a tip that tapers and follows the same contours as the floor’s edge.

The changes made to the AMR24 in Japan follow on from the introduction of a new front wing at the Australian Grand Prix, with the span-wise twist distribution of the upper two flaps altered.

This change in flap profile also led to the team removing one of the metal support brackets in the centre of the lower of those two flaps.

In the two months since news broke that Hamilton will leave Mercedes after 12 seasons to join Ferrari next year, the instability engulfing Red Bull F1 management has placed Max Verstappen and Silver Arrows protégé Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the top of the shortlist to replace the Briton.

The other leading candidates to partner George Russell are Fernando Alonso, who has so far refrained from committing his future to Aston Martin, and ousted Ferrari racer Carlos Sainz.

Some momentum initially gathered behind four-time F1 champion Vettel coming out of retirement to race for Mercedes, not least because of his regular contact with team boss Toto Wolff.

While that rumour did die down, the German’s recent test of a Porsche 963 Le Mans Hypercar plus his outlining the ‘appeal and interest’ of an F1 return has put him back among the headlines.

Long-time on-track rival Hamilton says he ‘loves’ the idea of Vettel returning to F1, adding that he would be an “amazing option” to replace him at Mercedes.

“I would love for Seb to come back,” Hamilton opined. “I think it would be an amazing option for the team: German driver, a multi-world championship-winning driver, someone who’s got amazing values, will continue to take this team forward. I’d love if he came back.”

Discussing the merits of Vettel’s decision to take a couple of seasons out, Hamilton reckoned he would only ever walk away from F1 when he knew it was for good.

He said: “I’ve never thought about taking a year or two off and then coming back [per Vettel]. When I’m gone, I’m hopefully gone for good.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, congratulates Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1, after winning his 7th championship

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

“You are always going to miss it. It’s the greatest sport in the world and it’s the greatest experience in world. It’s the most amazing feeling to be working with a group of people towards winning something, achieving something.

“There’s probably nothing that’s ever going to feel the same. I’ve not asked any of the drivers what they’re missing. I can just imagine.”

While Hamilton was vocally in favour of Mercedes retaining Valtteri Bottas after 2021 rather than promoting then Williams driver Russell, the seven-time world champion reckons Mercedes should back young talent this time around.

Russell, when asked about a possible return for Vettel, maintained his stance that he is willing to assert himself against whoever Mercedes picks to be his team-mate.

“Sebastian’s a great person,” he said. “He’s a four-time world champion and for sure, his personality is missed on the grid.

“I think it’s important that we have the best 20 drivers in the world all competing for race wins and championships.

“I’m really happy and open to have anybody as my team-mate, whether it’s a world champion, whether it’s a rookie – it doesn’t change how I go about my business.

“We’ll welcome anybody.”

The FIA is currently undertaking a review into the first incident, which occurred after Russell was caught out by Fernando Alonso deliberately braking earlier for Albert Park’s Turn 6 as part of an attempt by the Aston Martin driver to disrupt the chasing Mercedes racer.

Alonso was penalised for his actions post-race in Melbourne, a decision which has split opinions among F1 drivers at this weekend’s event in Japan.

Autosport understands that several possibilities for altering the corner are now being considered for F1’s return to Albert Park next year, which follows calls for such a development from the drivers even before this latest high-profile incident at the corner.

Russell’s crash followed concerns over the corner’s safety coming into focus in 2023 when Albon crashed there, which caused the first of three red flags in last year’s Melbourne race.

There were then two major incidents at the spot in F1’s recent visit to Australia – when Albon was pitched into the barriers opposite Turn 6 in FP1 after hitting the corner’s exit kerbs hard and then when Russell’s car nearly rolled following the incident with Alonso.

Turn 6 was among the corners changed as part of the Melbourne event’s major re-profiling ahead of its post-pandemic return to the F1 calendar in 2022.

As part of this, the right-hander’s racing line was opened up and so made considerably faster before it feeds into a long acceleration zone.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

Options apparently now being considered for changing the corner include a re-profiling to reduce car speeds there, adding an asphalt runoff area to the outside instead of the current gravel trap, or adjusting the barriers behind the corner to try and prevent cars from bouncing back towards the track in the event of another crash.

The idea of changing the corner was brought up during the post-FP2 drivers’ meeting in Melbourne this year, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri also suggesting it had already become “a bit of a discussion… not last weekend, but in Melbourne” prior to the 2024 event.

“Maybe there’s a couple of things that we could improve there a bit,” Piastri added at Suzuka on Thursday.

“We’ve seen quite a few accidents where cars have kind of been bounced back onto the track, which is something that we’ve spoken about, and I think it should be addressed.

“Maybe just the angle of the wall or potentially even the speed of the corner. It’s obviously quite a quick corner now.

“So, it is something that we have spoken about with the FIA. And we’ll see what comes. But yeah, there’s probably been now a few too many crashes with cars ending up in the middle of the track to not do something about it.”

Piastri’s view is shared by many of his peers, although Russell stated, “the corner’s amazing, probably one of the best corners on that circuit, so I wouldn’t want to see that corner change”.

“[But] it’s not just that corner,” Russell added. “I think all circuits that have the barriers in certain positions, if it’s going to propel you back onto the circuit, that’s obviously not good.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, talks to the media

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“And we don’t want to have big runoffs. We don’t want to have [asphalt] runoffs.

“I think everything is correct. Just the position of that wall, even if it’s closer to the track but in line with the circuit, at least you wouldn’t bounce off into the racing line.”

Albon also highlighted the issue of the kerb contributing to his 2024 Melbourne FP1 crash, with the Williams driver explaining how it’s “kind of a double-stepped kerb on the exit”.

He continued: “And especially as we have these low cars now, everything we touch, we can use the first bit of kerb, but if you go too far across and you hit the second kind of ramp section, it forces the car into the air.

“So, there’s two things that could be done better.”

Speaking alongside Russell and Albon in the pre-event press conference at Suzuka, Ferrari driver and 2024 Melbourne winner Carlos Sainz said, “that corner needs to be reviewed, which is already something I said in the last driver’s briefing”.

“But it’s not the first time that after a collision, the car comes back into the track. And it’s a corner that we’re doing 250km/h and it’s blind.

“I just don’t like the last few incidents that we’ve seen in this corner, also in other categories. It just doesn’t give me a very good feeling.

Press Conference, Alex Albon, Williams Racing

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“It’s a great corner, don’t get me wrong. I love driving in a qualifying lap.

“It’s just when it comes to racing, there’s been just too many examples of a car coming back onto a track and being very narrow there.

“And I just think it’s a corner that needs to be a bit reviewed.”

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Everything You Need To Know

Russell was left screaming for the race to be stopped after his wrecked W15 had bounced back onto the track and come to rest on its side following a crash while chasing Fernando Alonso.

The aftermath of the crash caused considerable concern amongst F1 fans and observers given the danger.

Although the live broadcast cut to Russell’s accident as it was progressing, once he had come to a stop it appeared to take a long time before the virtual safety car system was activated and when it did the Mercedes had already been passed by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

He had to be hurriedly warned by his now former race engineer Ben Michell, who from the Suzuka weekend is acting solely as Aston’s head of performance optimisation, as Stroll was approaching the crash site near blind due to the high-speed nature of the corner where the incident occurred.

That knowledge was part of Russell’s response over his own team radio in trying to get the race stopped, as was motorsport’s tragic recent history where junior drivers Anthoine Hubert and Dilano van ‘t Hoff were killed after their crashed cars were then struck again in high-speed accidents at Spa.

When asked by Autosport if he wanted a new safety system to be implemented to avoid such a situation being repeated in the future, Russell replied: “It was an incredibly uncomfortable position to be in.

“You’re on a blind bend, [where cars approach at] 250km/h, right on the racing line with the car half upside down. [I was] waiting for disaster to happen.

“Fortunately, I had a 10-second gap behind me and I think it was 10 or 12 seconds before the virtual safety car came out.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

“But in the space of 10 seconds, you can have five, six, seven cars if that was on lap one of the race and [I would’ve] probably been hit numerous times, even with the yellow flag.

“We’ve seen close incidents before where a car comes back [onto the track after a crash] – Carlos [Sainz] in 2022 in Japan.

“I think we need to find a way that if a car is in a danger zone, [there could be an] automated VSC straight away – within half a second or so because those seconds count.

“Lives are at risk. We’ve seen it at Spa numerous times in the past, [with] cars aquaplaning. I think it’s time with the technology that we have to make steps in this area.”

The incident is currently under review by the FIA, which Autosport understands will lead to a major change to the corner concerned for the 2025 Australian GP.

It is also understood that in regard to Russell’s wishes for an automated process being put in place as part of a safety system update to cover such incidents, the governing body feels its existing procedures functioned as required in this instance.

A yellow flag digital board display was activated 1.2s after Russell hit the barrier, which then became waved double yellows – including physical flags being shown by nearby marshals – 5.7s after the crash started.

Once 8.1s had passed, the zone of track leading up the crash site had been placed into double yellow status, which is also transmitted to the driver audio signals and cockpit displays for each car.

It has also been suggested that a compounding and significant optics problem in this situation is that it takes several seconds from the VSC system being activated in race control for it to be displayed on TV broadcast graphics.

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Everything You Need To Know

The Australian was dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022 after struggling to come to terms with the car across two difficult seasons in which he lagged behind Lando Norris.

Thus far in 2024 he has been overshadowed by Tsunoda, who has twice made Q3 and finished seventh in Australia.

However Ricciardo insists that he is in a much better position at RB than he was at McLaren, and is close to having all the pieces fall into place.

“We’re chasing a little bit of as always downforce, a bit of rear grip,” he said when asked by Autosport in Japan about his situation.

“To be honest, I struggled a little bit in the high speed in Melbourne and Saudi.

“Saudi we did see we were down a bit, so we kind of felt like we had a bit of an explanation for that. But it was still the case in Melbourne through kind of Turn 9 and 10, where I was down a bit compared to Yuki.

“I think we probably focus a little bit of our set-up on those areas to give me that confidence. And then I think the low and medium speed stuff, we’re pretty much there.

“It’s not a McLaren situation. So I think it’s just important now that I just keep working with my engineers, and we don’t start taking too many suggestions or advice from the outside.

Daniel Ricciardo, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“Of course, I would have wanted more results from the first few races, I’m not happy with it. But it’s important that we just stay on course, ultimately, and don’t get sidetracked.”

Ricciardo says any pressure to perform that he faces in his first full season back in F1 is largely self-imposed, having returned to racing mid-season in 2023 replacing the ousted Nyck de Vries.

“I say yes,” he said when asked if felt he was under pressure. “But my answer is it is from me, more than anyone. I’m sure there is from the outside.

“But I came into this season having a full pre-season, I had a really good winter, I trained my butt off, and I feel really good. So everything in my head and through my years of experience tells me that we should start the season firing on all cylinders.

“So yeah, that’s where I’m like, ‘okay, it hasn’t really happened yet’. And it’s been three races.

“But I know that I don’t need to change anything, it’ll come. It’s just a little bit here and there.

“Whatever is maybe just missing at the moment will click, and I think it’s one it’s one weekend away from that.

“Even Melbourne, obviously, I was probably disappointed on paper with the weekend, of course, and not getting points, and the quali and all that. But when we kind of analyse the race, it wasn’t as sad as it probably looked or seemed.

“We had good race pace. And I think there are some good things that we’re taking, we just need to put it together now. And that I will do.

Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I said I would in Melbourne, and I fell short. But I will do it this weekend.”

Ricciardo has previously hinted that something might be awry with his car, and he confirmed that the team has swapped some parts in an attempt to trace any issues.

“Since Saudi, we changed a few things,” he said. “And then probably for China, we’ll change a few more things.

“We’re obviously trying to make sure that everything is good and there are no flaws in anything. And it’s just obviously for us peace of mind, because we have obviously explored quite a bit.

“I jumped in last year and I was on the pace straight away in Budapest and this year feels like I’m a little bit behind, with better prep and more experience with the car and the team.

“So that’s why we’re just making sure that we’re not missing something that is kind of out of our control for now.”

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Everything You Need To Know

The Aston Martin driver was handed a drive-through penalty in Melbourne, converted to a 20-second time addition, for the way in which he aggressively defended against George Russell on the final lap around Albert Park.

His early deceleration, aimed at ensuring he got a clean exit from Turn 6, caught Russell by surprise and the Mercedes driver lost grip in dirty air before crashing into the barriers and ending up in the middle of the circuit.

Alonso says he remains surprised that the stewards acted against him, but is clear that he thinks the way things played out was a one-off that will not force him to behave differently in the future.

Asked by Autosport in Japan if he was clear about the rules of defensive driving in the wake of being punished, Alonso said: “It was clear. And I think it’s still clear.

“It was a little bit surprising, the penalty in Melbourne.

“There is nothing we can do, we have to accept it and move on and concentrate on here. But I think it will not change much on how we drive and how we approach racing.

“There is no obligation to drive 57 laps in the same way. Sometimes we get a slower pace, to save fuel, to save tyres, to save battery.

“And sometimes we go slow into corners, or into some sectors of the track, to give the DRS to the car behind because that will be a useful tool if the second car behind is at a faster pace.

“All those things are completely normal. And it was, it is and it will be forever in motorsports. So we had one penalty, probably a one off, that we will never apply ever again.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24, leads George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

While the race stewards declared in their verdict that the outcome of the incident with Russell did not influence their decision, Alonso is not sure.

Asked if he thought the matter would have been ignored if Russell had not crashed, Alonso said: “100%.

“If he was in Abu Dhabi with a run off area of asphalt or whatever, I think George will rejoin the track a few metres after that and will try to have a go on me on the following lap, or the following straight. And it will not be any problem.”

Alonso says a much bigger issue in the incident was the way that a relatively small moment for Russell turned into a massive accident because of the way the crash barriers at Turn 6 speared the Mercedes back onto the track.

“I think that the big thing is Turn 6 in Australia,” added Alonso. “It is not the safest corner at the moment on that track.

“We saw an accident last year with Alex [Albon] in the race, and this year in free practice where he damaged the chassis.

“Also in F2, I think Dennis [Hauger] crashed there as well. George obviously in the race.

“And that’s probably for me a more important point to change for next year than what the driver in front of me will be able to do or not do, as long as I don’t need to make an avoiding action or whatever to avoid him, which was not the case.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“That was my point after Australia, and still now. I will move on. I don’t want to speak too much on that.”

But despite wanting to draw a line under the matter, Alonso said that getting punished in the first place, rather than the level of penalty, was the biggest thing for him.

“It was the hardest penalty of the season, I think, in terms of time lap, which is strange, but the fact it got penalised [was the main issue],” he added.

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Preview – Everything You Need To Know