Alonso’s bad luck ‘unbelievable’ after Imola DNF

Fernando Alonso has been left rueing his “unbelievable” bad luck after retiring from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix following unfortunate contact with Mick Schumacher.

Alonso’s Alpine was tagged by the spinning Haas on the first lap at Imola and the two-time former World Champion fell down the order before a significant chunk of his sidepod flew off on the pits straight, with the subsequent damage forcing him to retire from the race.

After having to also retire in Saudi Arabia, the unhelpful timing of the Safety Car periods in Australia last time out forced him onto an unfavourable strategy that saw him finish last on the road in Melbourne having arguably been in the fight for pole position.

In a car that has shown plenty of promise this season, Alonso’s reward has been a mere two points for his efforts while his team-mate Esteban Ocon has 20 on the board.

What can we say, it wasn’t our weekend. We move on to Miami. #ImolaGP @alo_oficial @OconEsteban pic.twitter.com/WDWo1MGIFx

— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) April 24, 2022

Regarding Sunday’s incident, his main hope is to convert the pace in the A522 into results in the coming races.

“Obviously I didn’t see much, but I saw the replay that Mick spun unfortunately and touched my car, and destroyed completely the right-hand side of my bodywork and floor,” he told Formula1.com, addressing Schumacher’s contact.

“So that was too much damage to keep racing. Another time that, out of our control, we lost another race.

“I think we are extremely unlucky in this first part of the championship but there’s still a long way to go – hopefully we can recover.”

Alonso feels the speed of the Alpine dropped off compared to their form on the first three weekends of the season, but added