Ricciardo questions Alonso’s move at the start in Singapore

The start of the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix was marked by the spectacular takeoff of Fernando Alonso, just like the previous year. Reaching the braking point before the two Red Bull drivers ahead of him on the grid, the Spaniard locked his front left tire and had to cut the first corner.

A few hundred meters later, the Ferrari driver let Sebastian Vettel pass again but maintained third position, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who thinks Fernando Alonso should also have let him pass. « It’s difficult… He obviously wanted to be fair-play and gave his place back to Seb [Vettel]. But without braking so late, would he have been ahead of me? Hard to say. » This statement by Daniel Ricciardo reignites the debate about runoff areas, which are now paved and allow drivers to go off track without being heavily penalized.

« The positive aspects of these new runoff areas are that they are safer, which is good. But the downside is that people no longer face the consequences of their mistakes. In Monaco, Fernando would have been in the wall, » he said to Sky Sports.

And the opinion of the Australian is shared by Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert: Fernando Alonso should have yielded to the two Red Bull drivers. He had the opportunity to do so, and obviously, you could argue that he wouldn’t have braked as late if there had been a wall there, declares the 1996 world champion. This is the issue with these runoff areas. Even if Fernando Alonso attempted to take the corner, the question remains about the advantage gained by using the runoff at that part of the track: How significant was this advantage? I think he should have given back two positions, not just one.

The race stewards, however, did not share this opinion, as the Ferrari driver was not penalized for his maneuver in a race that saw him finish 4th… behind the two Red Bull drivers.