The F1 rule Alonso has cleverly exposed 

He pointed it out, nobody listened, so he adopted it - he is no doubt intelligent, and even if this will get forbidden, he can just lean back and smile….

In the words of Jeremy Clarkson... There was nothing in the rules that said you could do this, but critically, there was nothing that said you *couldn't*

The point Alonso couldn’t make in a few months of complaining, he made in 2 seconds of driving. Genius. Had me in splits when I realized he did the formation lap “mistake” on purpose.

Alonso be like: sometimes my genius… it’s almost frightening…

Spotted Alonso's move straight away and how he managed to thread the proper path. He's a shrewd driver, he's a fantastic starter, he was just making a very clear point, on track, in Russia.

He has telling everyone over the season and having no response that, I think, he has the right to did what he did on Sunday

Driver thinking like the Engineers looking for a loophole that they can exploit, sounds great to me, especially since the Stewards are so inconsistent with their "Judgements".

This guy is an incredible driver, but most importantly, he's ballsy to act. That's good to see.

Carlos actually tried to do this in the 2020 Sochi but ended up binning it

Palmer talked about this in his race analysis on F1TV, when he mentioned how much Alonso dislikes corner cutters he did not refference the "he cut the chicken/5 seconds is a yoke/Karma" episode they had in Monza 17, what a missed opportunity.

Can we all just agree that having Nando back in F1 is amazing

I love Alonzo and his tact, sometimes the way to get a rule changed is to abuse it yourself.

Complained about broken rules and the proceeded to make a comedy out of FIA by showing how broken it is

Nando is a intelligent driver ,imagine everyone did that at turn2 next year if they didn't fix it that would be funny

Alonso: "Close this loop hole." Rule makers: "No." Alonso: "Then I shall drive through this loop hole at high speeds." Lawful Neutral path chosen.

Alonso is one smart cookie. He seems particularly good at reading the race as it unfolds. He'd make a good team strategist.

I think Alonso's turn 2 move was brilliantly cheeky.

Sainz in 2020 trying the same thing: *crash* Alonso in 2021: that's how OGs do it

From what I see , Alonso took full advantage of a loophole in the regulations that wasn't addressed by the race director despite pointing it out several times. He did nothing wrong.

03:24 Ah yes, the famous 2 types of racing lines. The "Normal Racing Line" and the "Alonso" :D lol

I have a feeling Alonso did that at least partly to emphasis how silly the rule is.

Alonso being big brain at Sochi.

The runoff area needs to be formatted in such a way that if they attempt a tactic like that they end up where they actually would have been (or behind) if they attempted to dive the outside but still navigated the corner with the rest of the pack. Good on Alonso for exploiting these rules so perfectly!

“What should F1 do about this in the future?” Listen to its veteran drivers. Simple.

What he did was extremely smart, it shows he’s still at an extremely high level, because he can figure out how to abuse a rule, and it’s seemingly all for petty revenge, he deserves every bit off advantage he got.

I’m with Alonso on this. He brought it up, no one enforced it so may as well take advantage of it

Nando, using every available legal advantage. GENIUS. F1 needs to close in on the rule with more objective wording.

This Alonso rookie is quite cunning. He is definitely on track to become a world champion one day.

Cheeky Nando using his experience and wisdom to gain places, very clever

Alonso is actually the worlds biggest chad. Those positions were earned by pure chadness

"what do you think of Alonso's move" In a Crofty accent: "It was brave, it was brilliant"

When he retires from driving, he should be offered heaps of money and/or other perks to help with regulations. We mustn't lose all that race brain and experience IMO!

I'm really glad you brought this up. I remember watching this event during the race, as he flew through the foam chicane without the slightest hesitation. My first thought was "well that didn't slow down sh*t..". Now that I know it was part of his plan, it makes much more sense.

ALONSO, the gift that keeps on giving....every flipping season 🙌🙌🙌

I'm glad he did it, it's proves how sometimes you need to take action of the 1st lap depending on the situation

Alonso took F1 to school. We praise F1 engineers for finding opportunities in the rules. Alonso did the same. Even if he didn’t raise the issue in the past, he was PERFECTLY in the right to do as he’s done. It’s cunning and still legal. Analysts called it Cheeky. Hah! It’s Brilliant. Alonso Rules.

The problem was the blocks didn’t need to be driven around at all, they just straight lined it through them. The easiest solution would be to make a proper chicane out of the block that require a slower speed and more steering input.

So clever, Alonso, one of the most complete F1 drivers ever, right up there with Senna & Schumacher for speed and analysing and exploiting everything in F1. He's making this rule and therefore the F1 rule makers look a little silly.

He even practised it beforehand, which I caught when watching at the time.The Sky commentary waved it off as Fernando losing it, but at the time I thought "you crafty little Spaniard" (or similar), and so I was in no way surprised when he managed to position himself and repeat the move in the race start. It won't have escaped notice from the other teams, and if a circuit provides the incentive, and the rule has not been changed, expect chaos!!

Alonso is just showing his racing smarts again. Really hope he'll have a shot at WDC 3!

It's not the first time this has happened, back in 2009 Kimi did it at Spa. It looked like he did that intentionally after getting good exit there in 2008 after Hamilton spun

He actually practiced the move on the lap to the grid, so he had it planned all along!

Alonso was proverbially staring down Masi the entire maneuver. The stewards are up against one of the cleverest drivers on the grid, this is gonna be fun watching it play out.

If Simulation Hypothesis is real... Alonso exploited a bug in the Matrix.

Nando discovered The Mahaveer Maneuver

It was legal. Period. Can’t fault a driver for driving within the rules of the sport; don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Great move! Look if people ignore the spirit of the rule, then Fernando has every right to do whatever he sees fit within the rule. If you don't want people to abuse the rule, may be you make every run-off area a dead end or turn it into gravel. If not, the FIA will have to clamp down on the abusers and penalize them accordingly.

It would help if they made the blocks more difficult to negotiate, requiring a driver to lift or even brake a little to be able to negotiate them and therefore being unable to gain any advantage from going off track. Alonso managed to find a straight line through them in practice that allowed him to pass through without lifting, therefore not losing much, if any time by going off track.

Alonso’s been planning this move since France 2018 lol. Genius!,

i love nando..when he does something dirty unlike other drivers its actually amazing...always he exposed flaws in the sport

Fernando is a very clever man he knows exactly what to do and when to do it I believe if he had a more competitive car such as the McLaren or Red Bull for example he would be fighting for the world championship again and I still believe he would win it too All hail the Grande Fernando you are a true motorsport legend 🏎🇪🇸🏎🇪🇸🏎

Fernando's move was clever. Chapeau.

It may have not been the most legal overtake, or the best, but it was definentely the smartest

And that's how you handle a situation like that, awesome stuff!

Sometimes Nando's genius is, is almost frightening!

He's the intelligent racer. The move was brilliant. And exposed the shortcomings in F1 regulations and rulings. Kudos to Alonso.

I don't understand the difference of gaining a lasting advantage on the first lap differing from lap 19 or lap 55 of a race makes no sense to me! I've been watching this sport now for 20 plus years and only recently became confused on track limits! Why are they only applied at certain turns instead of all turns! It should be something that is applied on every turn, every lap! Instead of 3 chances on a certain turn, you get 5-6 chances throughout the entirety of the race then enforce a penalty after that! I agree with what Alonzo is doing here in principle and practice obviously I'm not a fan of it. But I get a very similar vibe to what baseball and the United States was just facing with foreign substances and pictures. You had a pitcher complaining openly on social media and bringing to the attention to MLB officials with no foreseeable change in the way they were enforcing foreign substances that pitcher decided if he can't beat them he would join them and ironically became the pitcher that eyes were most on by the MLB officials!

It was brilliant and we love to see it given that they made the pitstops slower and track position is Paramount

I think it would be interesting to have straight-up options in the track layout, kind of like a non-mandatory Joker laps. Make the option slower in normal circumstances, but potentially useful at the start or in traffic.

It was a brilliant way to bring to light your protest. It's like, "ok then, now what do you think?" I loved it. Testing the senario on the formation lap, then diving through at the race start.

I think Alonsa is the smartest driver on the grid. His race craft is unmatched. This move proves it. While not technically breaking any rules, he essentially gained 3 positions because of them. BRILLIANT MOVE, FERNANDO!!!!

Alonso actually practiced that maneuver on his way to the grid for the start of the race. Plenty of tricks left in the old dog.

I thought his move was a classic Fernando masterclass

Can this man get anymore legendary

Completely love that move from Alonso. He turned this into a loophole and this is pure Alonso

We are witnessing Nando as the modern “Professor” aka Prost Mk2. Intelligent driving

I noticed Alonso's move at the start as well. You can see how a driver may commit to a racing line that doesn't follow the actual curve.

Fernando is the best driver I have ever seen in my life

Sport and especially F1 is all about knowing what the rules are and exploiting the loop holes.

An intelligent drive by an experienced and smart driver. Indeed many in F1 should be both watching and listening to both Alonso and a couple of the other longer serving drivers.

Dont forget Alonso beated the mighty Schumacher. He is no fool

I reckon they should bring back more gravel traps. This would force the drivers to stay in track.

New Alonso is giving me Niki vibes.

This guy is simply a genius who also turns out to be a determined racer! Deserves more titles

If the off track run off area and route to get back onto the track is a slower route than the actual race track itself, then no speed advantage can be gained by using it. Wouldn’t that be a good idea. 🤔

"I don't like it, but I'll have to go along with it." Shades of Peter O'Hanraha-Hanrahan, there.

Alonso is slowly becoming my driver of the year…

He was absolutely in the right to do what he did. He described the problem, noone listened, now he's showing the problem and everyone is watching.

Well, if the rules are not enforced you can break them - i remember how it was around 2010 in Montreal for example at the last chicane - the driver who wants to overtake has to go to the inside and the one who is defending cuts the chicane and stays ahead - and no one gave them a penalty...

@3:51 it looked much more narrow and S-shaped than when Alonso drove there @3:58. Maybe just a slightly different viewing angle, or was it much straighter (and faster) in the actual race?

I, for one, loved what he did. Cheeky AF.

Don let it distract you from the fact that he could get p3 on pace if it did not rain heavily. Was making mad gains on semi wet

Bahrain was a prime example of track limits being abused, props to Alonso to fighting the good fight.

I saw Kimi do this a few times back in the Ferrari days. I always called it 'doing a Raikonen'

“If you want to enforce track limits, put grass or gravel at the edges, like Indy does” Grosjean

dont have an issue with it, hes right alot of other drivers get away with it so join them. NOT TO MENTION alonso has been on fire this season. i went from hating him to being a fan.

Let's also not forget that he gave the positions back to Stroll and Russel after saying that he had to "let some cars go to come back into my position". Check Alonso's onboard after the first lap and you can very clearly hear him saying this to his engineer.

08:18 i could hear a faint and nervous “ich...nichte...lichte”

Just bring back gravel traps, no one will purposely go out of bounds then!!!

Ah alonso... Always the clever fox :)

Kimi did something similar in Spa 2008 or 2009 where he went wide in the first lap and first corner! It was also discussed before the race and legal!

Peter ohanra hanrahan quote there “he doesn’t like it, but he has to do along with it” cheeky haha

Rules can't be prefect Alonso just smart, very smart

One of the most intelligent rookies I’ve ever seen.

In the good old days, track limits were marked by walls or trees. That kinda ends the problem of FIA/F1 officiating.

Of course the corner could be changed with barriers erected to give the sudden penalty, but that really would screw the race. There is a need to have an escape route on the first corners at some tracks particularly where there is a longish run to it, perhaps the slalom needs to be redesigned to slow the cars down with penalties if they hit the bollards.

Still the best driver on the grid. He should be given a competitive car!

He’s by far the smartest driver since guys like Prost and Lauda in terms of identifying every possible source of utility and as a result, no one approaches his level of race craft.

Bring back gravel run-off! or at least longer and slower access road when you enter run-off, whether by intention or accident

Would it have been possible to do something like this against Petrov during the 2010 Abu Dhabi's GP? I always wondered if "missing" the breaking point of turn 20 to rejoin fast at the start of turn 21 would have given him an edge over the first straight.