In the last Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Spanish driver got a valuable and hard-fought seventh position, taking advantage of the double misfortune of the Ferrari team and the unexpected problem with Yuki Tsunoda’s DRS, but, after all, there are 6 more points for the account of this 2022 season that is already 16.
Just one week later, the fastest single-seaters on the planet travel to Canada, an appointment that seemed forgotten on the calendar due to its repeated absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but which is a classic in Formula 1. In this Difficult and very fast track in Montreal, the drivers will have to face various challenges, although if one stands out above the rest, that is porpoising .
Since Friday’s free practice, a large part of the grid complained about this rebound effect and physical pain, especially in the back, although it seems that Alpine tolerates it well. For this reason and because of the high speeds of the straights that precede the Gilles Villeneuve chicanes, the two-time Spanish champion could have good opportunities.
“Our car handles the rebound effect quite well this year,” admitted Fernando Alonso. “I didn’t feel it too much in Baku and we focused more on managing tire degradation, especially the rear ones.”
“It will be different in each circuit, for example in Jeddah it was very smooth, in Australia, too, and nobody said anything there. It will be very difficult for all the teams to agree to change,” assured the two-time world champion with the gala team
In 11th position in the championship, tied with Pierre Gasly and 15 points behind his teammate, Esteban Ocon, the man from Oviedo gives value to what he achieved last weekend in Azerbaijan, where they set the best times in the third sector thanks to his high top speed on the straight.
“It was a good result for us to finish seventh in Baku,” he said. “I think we have made the most of our car and the opportunities that the retirements of other cars have given us.”
“We still have to better understand our car and why we are experiencing differences from Friday to Sunday,” said Fernando Alonso before arriving at the 2006 victory with Renault.
For his part, the technical director of the French team, Pat Fry , gave some hints on how they will prepare the A522 for qualifying and the race, but not before reminding them how complex this Canadian track is.
“We return to Montreal this weekend for the first Canadian Grand Prix in three years. It has been a regular on the Formula 1 calendar for the last two decades and brings some unique challenges given that it is a non-permanent track.” said the British.
“We can expect the circuit to be a bit green as well as dirty during free practice but, as we have seen in the past, this will go away quickly when the tarmac gets rubbery,” said Fry. “Compared to the last race in Baku, we can expect a slightly higher downforce level for this weekend.”
“We’re going to step up the level of the rear wing, and we’ve got a few wing options to test with it and identify the optimal downforce setting,” explained the engineer. “The nature of the Montreal track leads you to increase downforce as there are some long straights mixed with a number of low and medium speed corners.
“Canada has a sensitivity for the power unit very similar to that of Baku and is usually very hard on the brakes, so we will be vigilant,” said one of the top managers of the Enstone team.
