Fernando Alonso offers sad 'charging station' realisation in fresh F1 criticism

Fernando Alonso believes the driver skill in navigating high-speed corners in F1 has gone and been replaced by "charging stations."

Owing to the need to harvest energy around the lap, drivers are no longer able to complete flat-out qualifying laps, despite the available energy being reduced for the Japanese GP to 8MJ.

This reduction from 9MJ meant that with less power available, the cars would need to lift and coast less and be able to go faster, in theory, but the sight of cars super-clipping into 130R drew widespread derision.

However, this is because Suzuka, much like Australia's Albert Park, is an energy-starved circuit, with the next race in Miami set to be a more favourable layout to prevent the need for such drastic energy management. 

Reflecting on this, Alonso, who had previously said the Aston Martin team chef could drive the car through Turns 11 and 12 in Bahrain, now felt half of the team could drive Suzuka. 

"It's gone, I told you in Bahrain testing that the chef could drive the car, now, maybe not the chef, but 50% of the team members could drive Suzuka," Alonso told media, including RacingNews365 of the challenge of driving at high-speed circuits.

"As I've said a few times already, the high-speed corners have now become the charging station for the car.

"So you go slow there and charge the battery in the high-speed, and then you have full power on the straights, so driver skill is not needed anymore, it is no longer a challenge in the high-speed corners.

"It is difficult [to improve the cars] as it will always be biased on the straights and saving energy, so it would improve on the super-clipping and the de-rates.

"It is something which should be fixed, and it is very possible that a quick fix on the regulations will improve, but in terms of how much you will push the car to the limit, that will not be needed, ever, with these regulations."