Alonso more concerned by first-lap track limits than Raikkonen’s COTA pass

Fernando Alonso wants tomorrow’s meeting between Formula 1 drivers and FIA race director Michael Masi to address why several of his rivals were allowed to exceed track limits at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

The Alpine driver complained strenuously during the race about another incident, when he was overtaken by Kimi Raikkonen on the outside at the same corner. Raikkonen was allowed to keep the place, which Alonso still believes this was a clear violation, but he sees no point in discussing it further.

“When you pass outside the circuit you normally give up the position,” he said. “If we bring this topic to the drivers’ meeting we will have the same answer so we will not bring it.

“I think if you are talking [about] football and you take the ball inside the area with your hands it will be a penalty so you don’t need to bring this to every match. Every time you touch the ball with your hands in the penalty area it’s going to be a penalty, every match.”

Alonso said he wants more discussions over how drivers are allowed to use the run-off area at the start of the race, which he has complained about previously, and became a talking point after he cut turn two during the start of the Russian Grand Prix.

“The meeting is tomorrow so I’m open to listen whatever they want to say,” Alonso explained. “But this is exactly what I don’t want [to] happen. I think there are many other things we should discuss in that meeting, like lap one.”

Several drivers ran wide at turn one when the race started. On the morning of the grand prix race control removed a series of ‘sausage kerbs’ at the exit of the corner which were intended to stop drivers running wide.

“They removed the bumps on the outside after the problem with F4 or wherever, the car that launched outside of turn one, and there were three or four cars going wide in turn one,” said Alonso. “So I would love to talk about those cars as we talked in Sochi.”

The Alpine driver’s concerns over the policing of track limits at the start of the race arose at the two races in Austria. He has previously discussed the subject with the FIA.

“Obviously the answers are always very constructive and very positive because we all want to race as fair as possible,” he said. “We try to address all the problems because sometimes it’s not only the drivers’ input of the race itself it’s just the nature of the circuit.

“In Sochi you will always have more problems than Silverstone or different circuits. We try to work together for a better solution so let’s see.”

He said it is important for F1 to address the problem so its growing fanbase can enjoy fair racing.

“It’s just trying to race fair and put a good show for the people in the grandstands and on TV,” said Alonso. “We have a lot of fans around the world and we saw at the race in Austin how fantastic it was to witness the grandstands full of people, et cetera. So you try to put a fair show for everybody.”

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