Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

F1 has no momentum, needs 'common sense' - Alonso

Fernando Alonso says "common sense" is needed to help F1 gain momentum as he noted half-empty grandstands at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The introduction of the 1.6-litre V6 turbo power units at the start of 2014 led to concerns F1 was losing fans as a result of the quieter engines. However, having been given a drive-through penalty in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for causing a collision, Alonso says more common sense is needed within the sport.

"Why did I get a penalty when someone hit me from behind? That’s an FIA thing…" Alonso said.

"Here we had half the grandstands empty, in a lot of races the stands were half-empty too, while some other championships are gathering momentum, like the WEC and Moto GP. All we do is try to get the cars to make more noise when what is needed is common sense…"

Alonso's penalty and a pit stop to repair front wing damage saw him finish three laps down in Abu Dhabi and he admits it was a frustrating way to end the season.

"It’s difficult to find positives when things go this wrong but races like [Abu Dhabi] are normally useful for the engineers, as they can get a lot of data and work out some conclusions. I guess that’s the only positive we can take out of the race.”

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - F1i's driver ratings

Chris Medland's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.