Alonso adamant he will not be sold as F1’s ‘grumpy guy’

Fernando Alonso has once again criticised Formula 1 for making him out to be a “grumpy guy” by broadcasting his radio messages.

In practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a message between Alonso and his Aston Martin engineer Chris Cronin was broadcast where the two-time champion signalled that he would be preparing his out-laps by himself and without team input after encountering traffic on a flying lap. 

Alonso has been critical of FOM for what he perceives to be selective radio broadcasts in the past that paint him in a negative light, and addressing the situation once again after qualifying eight for the season-finale, he insisted FOM “will not succeed” in portraying him negatively.

“There was bad traffic, there was frustration building, but yeah, as usual some comments are good, some comments are bad, but FOM has this fix with me and bad comments, but I am happy, it is their job,” Alonso told media including RacingNews365. 

“I had some positive feeling [in the car], but as I said, FOM have to sell that I am the grumpy guy.

“They have tried for many years and they will not succeed. 

“Conversations with your engineer are very private, and you are sometimes trying things, you speak about out-lap preparations that maybe I don’t agree with what the engineers want to try. 

“But you don’t have all this context behind you when they put the radio message, it is just wrong, but that is the way they do it.”