Fernando Alonso makes Ayrton Senna claim after Max Verstappen question

Fernando Alonso has claimed that modern-day F1 drivers are 'more polite' in answering questions about the Monaco GP than Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost would have been.

The debacle of the mandated two-stop race in Monaco has sparked considerable conversation about the future of the race, with former F1 racer Alex Wurz even coming up with minor proposals to modify the track layout to try and improve overtaking. 

Questions about what can be done for Monaco have been a hot topic in the Barcelona paddock prior to the Spanish GP, with Alonso claiming that questions put to world champion Verstappen would not have been tolerated by the likes of Senna or Prost back in the 1980s and 1990s.

"I never overtook any car," Alonso mused to the media, including RacingNews365, but Lance [Aston Martin team-mate Stroll] overtook Nico [Hulkenberg] on the last lap. You see one overtake every 10 years, but this is the nature of Monaco.

"I think Max spoke about this because you asked Max about Monaco, because the last thing Max has in his head now is just the Monaco race, but there is all this constant talk about how bad something is instead of how good something is.

"Maybe there are a couple of ideas among all involved in the sport, the drivers, the FIA, the teams, that we can think about for Monaco.

"But I don't think there is any need for something, because there is a lot of content now to be created, and drivers, we are too nice, so we answer every question.

"Because if 40 years ago, you asked [Ayrton] Senna or [Alain] Prost and they were fighting for the championship, what they thought about Monaco after one week, they would be less polite than we are now."