Alonso cannot count on Hulkenberg's support: 'Not impressed....'

Nico Hulkenberg was not impressed by Fernando Alonso's action during the Australian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg saw the Spaniard's tactics for which he received a penalty after George Russell crashed, and does not think it was acceptable that they were used at this corner.

Alonso was handed a 20-second time penalty after the Australian Grand Prix. In a duel with George Russell, the Spaniard had braked much earlier, shifted gears and released his throttle before turn six to allow Russell to slow down. At that corner, however, that created a dangerous situation, Hulkenberg claimed two weeks later in Japan.

"My personal view and when I saw it all, I wasn’t very impressed with Fernando's tactics there, to be honest, because Melbourne, after all, is kind of a street circuit. It's quite narrow there. We approached that corner with 260, 270 km/h. It's a blind exit. And, you know, if for whatever reason, the flag system or someone is late and one of us would have T-boned George, I think, the outcome and the way he feels might have been also quite different."

Hulkenberg not impressed with Alonso

"That tactic is quite a common one in Formula 1, in that particular corner with that speed, with a blind exit, I think it's the wrong corner to do it and produced quite a dangerous situation."

Hulkenberg therefore stressed that the action in itself was not wrong by Alonso, but that in particular the spot was wrong. "I think it's the wrong speed range, the wrong corner. And I think also the shift or the change, the deceleration was quite a big delta obviously. And it's easy to overreact and lose the rear in the car like it happened to George."

According to Hulkenberg, the action will certainly be discussed during the drivers' meeting on Friday. Alonso himself and also his team thought the decision to punish him was absurd. According to the Spaniard, such actions are part of racing and therefore he did not deserve a penalty. Not every colleague seems to agree with him.