The third-placed trophy in the Saudi Arabian GP traveled to Russell from the hands of an FIA envoy to the corralito of televisions. Alonso would officially recover it at night, although they will have to send it to him. It is fair to recognize that the Asturian gave more importance to the good performance of Aston Martin than to add 12 or 15 points in the World Cup standings: “I enjoyed the podium and the most important thing for me is that the car is strong, which it is. A pity that Lance (Stroll) did not score points for constructors. Bahrain is not an isolated event, that is the most important thing”.
“We are a bit closer to Red Bull. In Bahrain if they pushed they were too far away. Here they were ahead, but a little closer. The start was good, apart from being a little too far to the left. We led the race, we had the first image of an Aston Martin leading the race, by two laps, and I hope it won’t be the last time. We still need your help, but it will happen at some point when they don’t finish first and second. One day it’s the ‘pit-stop’, another day it’s the gearbox. If Max had suffered on Sunday what he suffered on Saturday, he would not have finished the race. Reliability will one day help us and I hope that in those races we will take advantage of the opportunity.
“The important thing is that we had the second strongest car”
“It doesn’t change me, the important thing is that we had the second strongest car. I opened eight seconds with George in the first stint and five in the second which could have been ten. And we had almost half a minute on the Ferraris. It was unthinkable on Thursday when we arrived. In Bahrain we took advantage of our lower degradation but here we had more pace, It wasn’t a tire thing, so it’s very good news,” Fernando told AS.
As Fernando appeared when third place had been taken from him, he did not hide his discomfort. Would he have been able to outsmart Russell in ten seconds? “Yeah? It’s frustrating? “No”. “He is below the standards (of the FIA stewards), he is not good for the fans. When you have 35 laps to report the penalty and you wait until after the podium, there is something seriously wrong with the system. It is what it is and I feel sorry for the fans. But I really had a great time on the podium, I took the trophy, I took the photos and I celebrated with the champagne. Having 15 or 12 points doesn’t change me much, but it’s sad. You have to have common sense, we don’t have to invent anything new”.
AS asked Fernando about the original penalty, the five seconds for being poorly placed on the starting grid. “I have to review the race but apparently I was too far to the left. It’s my mistake, I’ll have to pay more attention. It is quite strange that in two races we have had similar problems with two cars, Esteban (Ocon, in Bahrain) and myself. Maybe the halo is interfering with our vision. But they told me I had a five second penalty and I squeezed seven seconds, I paid my penalty. In the second ‘stint’ there was no investigation or information. If someone had told me I had a 10 second penalty I would have opened 11″.