Alpine finished fifth in the constructors’ championship in the 2021 season, although general sentiment seemed to indicate that AlphaTauri had been faster for much of the course, leaving the French in a theoretical sixth position on the grid pecking order.
With such a radical change of rules, 2022 was the great opportunity for all those teams that had not managed to be as competitive as they wanted in recent times and, at least so far, Alpine seems to have fulfilled one of its first objectives.
In both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Alonso and Ocon proved to be competitive and able to get to Q3 without much suffering and even lead the midfield ahead of Mercedes. However, the equality is so great in that part of the grid, that the threat of Alfa Romeo, Haas or AlphaTauri could cause constant changes as the teams develop.
Speaking about it after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race, Fernando Alonso was pleased with the current performance of the Alpine A522, but was hesitant to say where they stand at the moment.
“I’m happy with the performance. To be honest I think I could be in sixth or seventh place in the championship, but I’m not there, and it’s not because we don’t deserve it, it’s because we haven’t maximized the points. I think we’ve lost too many points “.
Asked if the Alpine is the third car, he said: “It could be, but the Alfa Romeo seems a bit quicker in places, the Haas was very quick in Bahrain. And Russell was doing well today, although not outstanding. So that we’re there, and now it’s up to us to make some progress.
“Maybe we’re not third fastest but it looks like we can be consistent, and even today without this DNF we could have finished sixth and seventh, that would have left us with a good number of points and as I said there’s still a long way to go. But yes, today I felt fast on the track”, said the Spanish rider.
Although the single-seater has left a good feeling in these first two races, the new Renault engine, with two consecutive problems and a frustrating retirement, has generated some doubts in the mind of the Asturian driver.
“Yes, I think [with the engine] we are now on the same level as the others. We have been able to fight on the straights, both here and in Bahrain. But unfortunately, we also have to further investigate what happened with the engine in Bahrain and what happened today, we have to make sure we have enough units for the whole year,” Alonso said.
