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Fernando Alonso’s Saudi Savior Teaches Ferrari & Mercedes on How to Deal With the FIA While Taking a Sly Dig: “If You Start Screaming…”

Published 04/22/2023, 11:40 AM EDT

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Aston Martin has clearly become the dark horse of F1’s 2023 season. The Silverstone-based team has arguably made the biggest jump a midfield team has made in the history of the sport. Now, while they fight toe-to-toe with the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes, the British team has started to feel like they know just as much as them, if not better, about winning. With Fernando Alonso emerging triumphant against Carlos Sainz and the Scuderia, Aston Martin didn’t lose this opportunity to prove exactly this.

Recently, it was announced that the FIA had dismissed Ferrari’s right to review petition to overturn Sainz’s penalty for taking Alonso out during the restart at the Australian GP. And with this, Aston Martin grasped the opportunity to teach one of the most successful constructors’ in the game a thing or two about F1’s politics.

Ferrari should’ve been more prepared

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In the end, Aston Martin and Alonso prevailed. The Spaniard will retain his third consecutive podium finish this season whilst the Scuderia sink deeper into their unfortunate spiral. That being said, Aston Martin’s Sporting Director, Andy Stevenson had a few words of wisdom to share to the team from Maranello in light of this whole fiasco.

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DAZN quoted Stevenson as saying, “You have to choose the fights. You can’t always be in the ear of the FIA. Sometimes the decisions don’t favor you, but you have to accept them. When it is something quite clear or something that you are going to win, then That’s when you have to fight.” [translated via Google Translate]

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“You have to have all the information that supports your case ready to present it to the FIA. You can never appeal a decision on a whim. If you start screaming in the sky, the FIA ​​​​will never listen to you,” explained Stevenson while referring to his work on getting rid of Alonso’s penalty at the Saudi Arabian GP.

Read More: In a Forgettable 2023 Start, Charles Leclerc’s No.1 Spot Not a Point of Contention as Former Ferrari Legend Points at the Real Weakness

Aston Martin are by far ahead of Ferrari at the moment. However, is this surprising?

Aston Martin’s supremacy was known to the Scuderia

For many Formula 1 fans Aston Martin’s meteoric rise to the top was a surprise. This has added to the excitement of the entire season, no doubt. However, for the other teams and drivers, they’d already seen the writing on the wall.

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Just after pre-season testing had concluded, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was quoted by The Race as saying, “This year we know their numbers were very good in the windtunnel, te simulator, I think they were even struggling to hide the excitement of what they were seeing.”

“They arrived to the Bahrain [test] and it confirmed they’re in the mix with us and I think it’s great news for F1, great news for Fernando. Excited to have one more team in the [lead] battle.”

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Watch this later: Helmut Marko blasts Lewis Hamilton for a role in Michael Masi’s sacking

Can Ferrari catch up to Aston Martin this year?

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Written by:

Anirban Aly Mandal

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Anirban Aly Mandal is a senior F1 writer at EssentiallySports, with over 500 articles published on the platform. Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 while playing on his computer, and he has since then dived deep into the world of motorsports. Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports.
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Edited by:

Varunkumaar Chelladurai