F1 | “I've been always clean driver, and I will remain a clean driver for all my career,” clarifies Alonso after “dark side” comments at Silverstone
After his combative start on Saturday’s sprint race, on Sunday Fernando Alonso had to explain his comments about racing “on the dark side” for the remainder of the Formula 1 season.
Alonso really caught a lot of people’s attention when he became the star of the first 100km sprint qualifying race ahead of the British Grand Prix when he managed to move up 6 positions on the opening lap, from 11th to 5th place.
In the end, he slipped back two places, and that improved position got him to finish seventh place during Sunday’s race.
But during the sprint race, the Spaniard was warned about moving under braking, but he refused to change his approach, saying that it would “be the same for the remainder of the year,” and later adding: “I will be in the dark side.”
After Sunday’s race, Alonso clarified his comments explaining that he did not mean he would be more aggressive but that he would be pushing the limits of the rules more after his frustration due to steward’s lack of action over the first-lap incident in Austria.
“I've been always clean driver, and I will remain a clean driver for all my career,” Alonso said. “I think I'm [one of the] few ones that I don't have any points on the license.
“But what I referred to yesterday is that I felt a little bit like an idiot in Austria by respecting the rules. And we try to speak with the race director, and we try always to say or blame all the things that the people were doing with not many answers. That was strange.
“So, I don't want to be blaming or I don't want to be crying every race for something that the others do. The strategy in the first races didn't have any solutions or didn't bring us any solution. So we understood that the solution is to do what the others are doing. That's the only thing we can do.”
The incident in question that happened two weeks prior in Austria was when Daniel Ricciardo ran wide in Turn 1 during the opening lap, giving him the advantage to stay ahead of Alonso, leaving the latter calling him to give up positions.
“We tried to be fair and we tried to say to the referee: 'Look, you know, they are playing with their hands in the penalty area’,” Alonso said after the British Grand Prix.
“But if the referee is doing nothing, we understand that we can play also with the hands in the penalty area. So we do that.
“We wish we don't need to do that. But because apparently, some things are allowed in the Formula 1 of today, so we copy it.
“And we don't feel any more like we are out of the sport. So there's no dark side. It is just playing with the same rules as everyone else.”
