Alonso rues ‘two unlucky moments in four races’

2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso said he had been “very unlucky” for the second time this year in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Alonso finished eighth after his DRS failed and stuck open early in the race.

“It was very difficult,” said Alonso. “We stopped two times in two laps so you are at the back of the group and with no DRS to use to pass. So the race becomes very, very difficult.”

“It’s the way it went today, he added. “Very, very unlucky race again. So in four races two very unlucky moments.”

However Alonso expects his fortune will balance out over the course of the season: “It will come for the others and we will take the opportunity in that moment.”

Team principal Stefano Domencali admitted, “it’s a big disappointment because today we could have done a great race.”

“Obviously the pace was there,” he added. “Not a good day for us because also Felipe [Massa] obviously had contact at the beginning then two problems with the tyres that we need to understand.”

“Not a good day for us. Let’s move ahead, big shame but that’s racing.”

2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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71 comments on “Alonso rues ‘two unlucky moments in four races’”

  1. First one Fernando, Malaysia was your fault…

    1. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
      21st April 2013, 17:46

      Not really. It was his fault that he hit Vettel’s car, but it was Ferrari’s fault not calling Nando to the pit.
      Today, it was again team fault with DRS. But why Alonso engaged DRS again? Without that mistake he was in pretty good position for fighting for podium. Shame on Alonso because 2012 was his best year in F1 and now he is making mistake after mistake, one be one.

      1. Nando’s already said that the decision of not pitting was he’s. So, he can’t regret it

        1. I think he was just taking one for the team there by saying that.

          We all know he could not see the wing or the damage from his seat in the car. It makes no sense that they would then allow him to make such a decision.

          1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            21st April 2013, 18:52

            @joshua-mesh so when it’s HIS decision to disobey orders, he’s “supportive” and taking one for the team? And why not in other driver’s cases?
            If it was his fault, that cost the team some points. Not a victory of course, but at least some “saved points” such as the ones he was able to take today.

          2. Are you trying to say that the team told him to come in, but he disobeyed?

          3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            21st April 2013, 19:18

            @joshua-mesh fine, probably he didn’t disobbey, but that only makes Ferrari having to take all the fault for not calling him.
            That makes contradictory from Alonso to “take the blame”. It’s his fault and not Ferrari’s, or it’s Ferrari’s fault and not his. What other alternative can you propose?

          4. I think it was rather he team taking that for him than the other way around @joshua-mesh, at least he had the excuse of not seeing what the FW looked like on the footage, and the team were out in the pitlane with a wing.

    2. If he was lucky neither the collision or broken wing might have happened ;)

    3. Fernando never admits fault. I think he also called Japan 2012 “unlucky”. My favorite was when he braked-checked Doornbos in 2006 and called that “unlucky” too. Zero qualities of a Samurai.

      1. I’m pretty sure, he said after Malasya that the hit it was his fault. Unlucky for Alonso is Kimi fisnishing a race with a broken front wing, so also happened to Massa yesterday, but not for him.

  2. I personally feel that he has only been unlucky once this season; bahrain.
    I feel Malaysia was self inflicted; had he not hit Vettel, which is his responsibility, then he probably wouldn’t have retired from front wing failure.

    1. and decided to stay out with the broken wing was his fault nevertheless. But quite honestly, this guy doesn’t give up and you have to admire that.

      1. Not taking anything from Alonso, but I never understand why everyone says “he never gives up”, it’s not like any other driver gives up, at least no top driver

        1. Actually, Alonso’s more likely to quit than other drivers. Remember Korea where he said ‘I give up, I give up’ on the radio?

          1. @asingh1 yes i remember it, but that wasn’t real, i remember he kept attacking

    2. @xjr15jaaag I don’t see how this is unlucky either … He got the flap stuck on open at a time around the first window of pit stop, so no real harm done. He got it fixed and changed tyres. Why did he have to try to open it again at that time of the race ? There is a problem, don’t use it … If you want to try, then do it before the next pit, this way you don’t lose any time. Once again a very bad call from Alonso/Ferrari.

      1. @jeanrien I see it as unlucky in that a mechanical failure is unlucky.
        Using it again was stupid, but the fact it happened was unlucky.

        1. You know I disagree with your point here that it was stupid to use it again… the guy went in to the pits they fixed the thing and there was no communication to him that the failure was terminal.. now we sit here and label the move stupid because we have the luxury of hindsight… if the repair job worked we would all be saying the man is genius… it is clear he was fighting with one arm behind his back without DRS the previous poster who suggested that he should have tried it only before going to the next stop,, he would have lost a lot of time and clearly just like I think any of the guys out there would have done, they tried the DRs in the hope that the failure was not permanent but it turned out to be…so for us sitting out here without the pressure of being in the race and with the luxury of hindsight to say it was stupid or not unlucky etc is not fair and ill worded in my opinion.

          1. Less time than having to make a 2nd unplanned pitstop I think.
            His car was fast. He would have been able to pass most of the traffic he without DRS as well. He would have lost time in traffic anyways. Perhaps a bit more without DRS, but now he lost 20+ secs in a second unplanned pitstop. And that ruined his race entirely.

            He could opt for damage control and playing it safe. Instead, he went flat out and risked it all. And this one, he lost. Is that stupid? Don’t know if that’s the best term. It definitely wasn’t the safest choice.

        2. @xjr15jaaag Yes in a way you’re right, a mechanical failure could be considered as unlucky (particulary for this one) … Now it happens at a “great” time for the team, the first pit was almost at the time where they had to pit anyway thus losing at most 4 laps on the tyre but not losing much time, that’s quite lucky.

          To conclude he was unlucky but quite lucky and then stupid … we got the chain of events and the timing right

      2. There is no doubt Alonso shouldn’t have used it again on the first lap out of the pits, but there is was a responsibility from the team to inform him.

        As far as he knew, it could have been a piece of debris wedged in there. It was up to the team to tell him that the actuator device was malfunctioning and unable to be automatically reset. They were the ones who inspected and “repaired” it at the pit stop.

  3. Well, 47 instead of a possible 79 points isn’t really something to be happy about and I don’t think anyone should plan with other peoples misfortune but there is a lot of time left to claw back the lost points. Lets just accept it and try coming back stronger!

    1. 4(races)*(25 points for 1st place)=100 possible points not 79 (Vettel haven’t scored max points either you know) ;-)

  4. Yeah it’s luck but with these thinigs you make your luck with qualify control at the factory. It’s not like he hit a bird or something. The fact that he has fallen behind Hamilton in the points shows that consistency, including the role played by reliatibliy, among the top 4 teams is going to crucial in the end.

  5. You got to make the best of what happened. To finish 8th, after two stops on consecutive laps and earlier than everyone, and all that without DRS, can’t be seen as anything other than impressive.

    1. True, but you don’t win championships with good impression. Points matter and a lot of them were lost today for Ferrari.

      1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        21st April 2013, 16:40

        Yes, but Vettel and Raikkonen will also have days when they score fewer points, and you bet your best dollar that Alonso will fully exploit those days. 2013 is the kind of season in which Alonso will thrive, with the focus off of the raw performance of the car and onto the driver’s ability to manage the races. He has a quick car, he has the talent, and all of the races this year have been, and will surely continue to be chaotic, and no man is better at exploiting chaos. Rule out the new “Red Baron” at your peril.

        1. How do you know though Alo may have a season like Hamilton last year, lets be honest 2 times already theirs a good chance more will happen over a season. Hamilton had a fast car yet had rotten luck last year, Ferrari usually have bullet proof reliability but surely that will not go on forever.

        2. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
          21st April 2013, 17:50

          I am not sure if Vettel/Raikkonen will have their bad days. Alonso is making too many mistakes in a raceday. Kimi is best now in avoiding those errors. Vettel is comfortable again with a car, he is confident.

          1. Alonso is making too many mistakes in a raceday.

            Remind me please of those “too many” mistakes or you are considering a DRS failure his own mistake

          2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            21st April 2013, 18:56

            @tifoso1989 he should have been cautious after the first DRS pitstop. He opened it again and was sent to pits for that. The car was really strong, so if he hadn’t done that, he could have been in at least one higher position.
            Well, probably it was the team who told him the DRS would be normal after the first pitstop, I can give you that

      2. @cyclops_pl it’d have been worse had he stayed down in 18th. He climbed to 8th. Those points could make or break…

    2. The Ferrari was quickest this weekend. The fact that he was able to fly passed others without DRS proves that.

  6. I just hope he won’t talk about luck all the time as he did last year.

    1. He is a smart man, he will continue to say his car is not the fastest, that he’s got some bad luck and everything else. That way he convince many that he is not capable of making mistakes.

  7. Not a good day to be a Ferrari fan. I’m not sure if I’d call Fernando unlucky, though. Continuing with a broken front wing in Malaysia was a gamble that didn’t pay off, DRS breaking is a technical error, which I wouldn’t really count as bad luck.

    As for Massa, does anyone have any idea how his second puncture happened?

    1. @npf1: They showed a replay of that. Can’t remember the exact corner but the right rear simply went off, out of nowhere. No kerb, no contact, no debris…nothing.

      1. It was the Last corner.

      2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        21st April 2013, 19:12

        The internal part of the circuit requires more weight pressing the right side. That could have happened. I saw that replay too, but it was a weird incident (Massa’s car was vibrating a lot before the first puncture, and probably the suspension suffered some damage which might have altered the weight distribution)

  8. Malaysia was your fault Fernando…

  9. Just waiting for his samurai comments to return – he is a great driver but sometimes a really odd guy :)

    1. Ha ha yeh he does love to blow is own trumpet a bit too much, the Olympian trainer fitter than anyone

    2. It will be a Jedi this year.

  10. So hitting another driver, deciding not to change your front wing and thus crashing out is unlucky? Guys, I think we have just redefined misfortune…

  11. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    21st April 2013, 16:31

    Such a shame, because it’s costing him the championship. Had Alonso not had these “moments” he’d have almost certainly been on the podium every race, and maybe he’d been in the championship lead. He’s now 30 points behind, and almost seems to wasting a great car, which is something that I’d never think I’d say with regards to Alonso. Saying that though, if you could chose a single man of the 7 billion people in the world to take on the might of Vettel and Raikkonen in a slightly slower car with a 30 point disadvantage, you’d choose Alonso. Which is why my pound is still very much betting on Alonso for the title.

    1. Lol a slower car he qualified 3rd had good race pace, were not fooled just like we weren’t last year Ferrari have an excellent car. I get annoyed because Vettel today was like Alonso last week yet Vet does not get the credit and Alo did last week.

      1. Most people on the forum voted Vettel as driver of the race in the awards thread though, which is nice to see.

    2. A slower car? The excuse that Vettel has a better car has faded in Bahrain…My pilot 2 – your pilot 0, mine avatar is losing, the rest i’m winning

  12. It’s only race 4, knowing Alonso he will fight and wrestle the car till the very last race in Brazil for the championship.

  13. Bad luck or not, I still don’t know why Alonso opened his DRS after it got stuck and got him into the pits the first time. It was sort-of obvious it was a piston issue there and if it failed once, it will have failed again.

    It was bad luck, I don’t deny that, but I think the second pit stop was avoidable by simply not taking the chance of opening the DRS again… One pit stop less could have brought him 4th or 5th place, easily…

    As far as Malaysia goes, that was a mistake on Alonso’s part (hitting Vettel) combined with a mistake from the team who should have called him in immediately. I wouldn’t say the decision of not changing the front wing was as much on Alonso as it could be inputted to the team. The driver can’t see his front wing. Stella should have called him in immediately instead of asking him what he wants to do…

    1. Totally agree with you on the DRS. I couldn’t believe that he opened it up on the next lap. It was way too big a gamble to use it on the hope the fault wouldn’t re-occur. I can see why he was so eager to use it considering how much of an advantage it gives, but that mistake was what cost him 5th position at least today.

  14. Alonso beats Vettel nine ways to Sunday … when it comes to self-promotion!

    Of course it helps a lot to have the sycophantic press on your side.

  15. What I don’t think he wasn’t given enough credit for, was managing to not only stay on the circuit with his DRS jammed open, but actually keep position. He did seriously well at that point, and seriously well to fight his way back during the race.

    However, in true Alonso style, he managed to then negate all that in my eyes by going moaning to race control the second someone gets one over on him.

  16. back to KL.
    he didn’t pit. he completed the first lap, and the wing didn’t fall off, he even overtook webber once or twice, so the wing could take some load
    anyway, they take a little gamble

    whatever, the ferrari is barely slower than the RB, that’s MORE than enough for ALO to finally take the title this year. or just another magic update for vettel…

  17. MB (@muralibhats)
    21st April 2013, 17:38

    after they forcefully corrected the DRS wing the first time, they could have tested opening the DRS in the pit itself to find out if the issue persisted. this would had reduced the second trip to pits.

    1. that might have not worked though because the conditions are much different at high speed (air pressure for example), one way to minimize risk would have been to refrain from using it on the second stint and test it short before pitting for new tyres

    2. Apart from what @lajo mentions, I am pretty sure that its not allowed to use DRS in the pitlane, so it would have gotten them a penalty. In that regards, it would be almost the same as having to pit again anyway @muralibhats!

      1. MB (@muralibhats)
        22nd April 2013, 9:31

        I mean, when the car was halted, cant he just try to flap the wing open?

  18. I also agree that Malaysia was his fault in the first place.

    And I am awfully awfully angry at both Alonso and at the team. As a Ferrari fan of course.

    They were both, but Alonso in particular, inch-perfect, OK almost, before one starts trolling, all through 2012 with a car, which really could not make up enough ground on the pole sitter during any race in the second half of the year and was a dog in the early days.

    Now they have a car capable of winning potentially three of the four GPs – and they mess it up big time.

    I’d rather have the get-the-maximum-out-of-my-package 2012 version of them, which I could be actually immensely proud of, rather than this year’s performance, which is all about giving away 20 of points in a cheap way.

    I am so so disappointed.

    1. The 2012 car wasn’t great in qualifying but it was always one of the best, if not the best car on Sunday.

      1. ^- that made me laugh so hard. The f2012 wasn’t even the third best car, Alonso kept the title open by being consistent when red bull and mclaren were having reliability problems. This year I think ferrari have a championship winning car, but so do red bull and lotus, and mclaren and merc aren’t far behind. Malaysia was alonsos fault, he took a big gamble, and its easy to criticize him from your armchair, but all drivers make mistakes from time to time. This race I thought both Alonso and his car were capable of the win, but it was ruined by the drs problem, I don’t blame him for trying it again, and for people to say it was obviously not going to close again makes me laugh, such brilliant armchair engineers we have here. Even the sky commentators said it could have been some tyre rubber stuck in the mechanism, Alonso tried it knowing without it he would struggle to get past any cars at the pointy end. As it stood he drove very swollen to salvage eighth, but against the top ten, without drs he struggled, used his tyres more aggressively to make up the deficit of having no drs, and was vulnerable to perez late in the race. Seriously, people biased against Alonso are just as bad as the ones biased against vettel. *rolls his eyes*

        1. Lmao dunno how my phone thought I was trying to type swollen then, I meant to type ‘well’, but my fingers keep hitting like five keys at a time lol

  19. Yes, Fernando has had two unlucky moments, but in both cases the situation was worsened by Ferrari’s decisions. In Malaysia, I was screaming at my TV when he passed the pit lane with that broken front wing, only to be proven right a few moments later. And today I was very surprised to see Alonso open his DRS at the back straight passing one of the Caterhams, as the risk of the DRS getting stuck a second time was high. So to say it was all down to bad luck is not true.

  20. It seems that Alonso’s are always missinterpreted or that there is always some degree of hostility towards him around here.
    Alonso thinks he had bad luck on the fact the heavy damage he took from a reltively small hit in malasya. We have seen similar cases, gasolinera, perez, massa… With better luck.
    So i think he has a point thinking he had a bit of bad luck.

    1. Gasolinera=raikkonen

  21. That’s 30 points Ferrari have flushed in the first four races.

    Even with the issues Alonso had in Malaysia and Bahrain, he had the pace to finish at least 3rd in both races.

    After 4 races in 2012 the WDC points were: Vet 53, Alo 43, Rai 34.
    After 4 races in 2013 the WDC points are: Vet 77, Alo, 47, Rai 67.

    Alonso might be better off than last year, but Vettel and Raikkonen more so. Unlike last year, the big points are being shared amongst those three and not the rest of the field, it’s going to be harder to close a points deficit without a string of consecutive wins.

  22. Alonso should found a religion or something like it, Karmalonso. I don’t think he is right but one thing is certain luck and freak events are more often to the teams eager to capitalize.

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