Former F1 World Champion Damon Hill has hailed Fernando Alonso's intelligence, saying the Spaniard would make a great team boss once he hangs up his helmet. Hill was discussing an incident after the second restart of the Australian Grand Prix on Lap 56, where Alonso, who had lined up third on the grid for the restart, lost several places after being tipped into a spin at Turn 2 by Carlos Sainz. With several other cars coming into contact with each other at the same corner, the race was red-flagged for a third time. There was confusion over what the running order should be for the resultant final lap run to the chequered flag behind the Safety Car. While some suggested that the cars should line up in the order they were in when the final red flag was thrown, Alonso immediately radioed his Aston Martin team to suggest that the order should instead be taken from the grid at the restart, using a precedent set at the 2022 British Grand Prix. Ultimately, it was decreed that this second option would indeed be the correct running order, meaning Alonso retained his third position. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Hill hailed Alonso's presence of mind and awareness of the sport's regulations in seeking to maximise his points haul.
Alonso would make a great team boss - Hill
"We were making a joke that he should be a lawyer. I'd get him to defend me in a murder charge!" quipped Hill. 'It's boring driving the car, he needs something else to do. He's going around going, 'Can I do the strategy as well? Give me more information.' "He already understands the rules. You'd expect someone who's been in Formula 1 as long as he has and had all the experiences to have learned something, but you can't automatically assume that. "He's invested in this, he understands it, and he knows, like Michael Schumacher as well. "Michael Schumacher understood where the openings were, where the opportunities were, and he took advantage of those, and it's the same with Fernando. "He's got to become a team boss eventually, because he'd be brilliant. He just understands this game."
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