Why Fernando Alonso was angry with Aston Martin in British GP

Fernando Alonso was left hugely frustrated with Aston Martin’s strategy at the British Grand Prix and felt a big opportunity went begging.

The two-time world champion started seventh but finished Sunday’s chaotic, rain-affected race at Silverstone ninth, while teammate Lance Stroll took seventh to secure Aston Martin’s first double points haul of the year.

But Alonso felt let down by Aston Martin’s strategy calls and was happy to air his grievances over team radio.

“All the people we lose places to, they have worse tyres or we just lose places for fun?” Alonso asked over team radio, before adding: “crazy how you never get it right with me".

After taking the chequered flag, the Spaniard bemoaned: “terrible race as usual”.

Speaking to DAZN following the race, Alonso rued what he felt had been a “missed opportunity” on a day Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg finished on the podium.

“It was a very hard race to execute, and for us, it ended up being a missed opportunity,” he said.

“I’m not happy, obviously. We started seventh and finished ninth – we executed something badly.

“Usually in these kinds of situations, his [Stroll] side of the garage tends to be more accurate. They did well. In fact, Lance pitted twice before I even made my first stop, which put him up in third.

“That’s why sometimes I find it hard to understand, because we have another car giving us information, and if that car is in third place, I don’t know how we can’t use that information from our side of the garage. It’s in-house.”

Alonso added: “I have the experience, but I don't have the data. When they call me to pit, I pit. I can feed back the track conditions, but I cannot do much more than that.

“Whoever says that the driver makes [the decisions in] these conditions and wins the races, it's bullshit.

“This is just a data-driven race with all the parameters we have in the car. I think the first stop was difficult to read, I understand that.

“I think [Lewis] Hamilton, [George] Russell, [Pierre] Gasly, Carlos [Sainz], myself, we all stopped on one lap. Obviously, we were P5, P6, P7, so it's very difficult to gamble in that moment of the race.

“But we exited behind Esteban [Ocon], Lance, Nico, a lot of cars that made a better call on the first stop. And then the second [stop]... I was the first one to pit for dry.

“The team thought that the inter tyre was losing temperature on the surface and it was the moment to pit. And I lost like 25 seconds again, so yeah, it was frustrating.”

Aston Martin insist no strategy problem

Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell denied Alonso’s claims of a strategy issue.

“I don't think there's a problem,” Cowell explained. “The strategy is done centrally because there's only one pit box.

“So you need to make sure that you consider it from a team perspective. Early on it felt really clear when to do the stop.

“Intermediates [were] progressively wearing out and the track was getting drier and drier. I think listening to the radio conversation with all the teams, everybody was thinking, ‘we should be stopping, we should be stopping. Now is the time to go’.

“We went early with Fernando. With hindsight, too early. But we very nearly stopped both cars that same lap.”