Fernando Alonso will start the Emilia Romagna GP from the pitlane, as Aston Martin decided to make a few changes to his car after a rather complicated Saturday.
The Spaniard crashed at the exit of Rivazza during FP3, and Aston Martin’s mechanics had to rush to allow him to participate in qualifying. Despite being able to hit the track on time, Alonso still struggled and only qualified 19th.
After such a poor result, the team decided it would be better to make some tweaks to the setup, hoping the race is going to have a better outcome compared to qualifying.
Alonso tried to look at the bright side of starting from the pitlane, saying that it could help avoid a huge crash into turn 1, as it happened in F2.
“If we start from the pit, there are also some benefits as well,” Alonso said.
“We saw the crash in F2 at the start as well. We need to avoid those kinds of things for the quantity of parts that we have on Formula 1 teams. So yeah, it could be an option.”
The two-time world champion also admitted that scoring points is not going to be easy, considering how difficult it is to overtake around Imola.
“Points are a little bit unrealistic,” Alonso added. “Let’s see. I think Imola is one of the worst places to start at the back.
“I think it’s the second most difficult circuit to overtake, just behind Monaco. Singapore ranks easier than Imola to overtake, so that tells everything.
“It’s going to be a tough race, but we should be able to learn something about the package as well.”