Alonso: "I'm sure we're going to have a good season"

Alpine finished the first week of preseason in Barcelona with a bitter taste after a breakdown that compromised the last hours of Fernando Alonso at the wheel of the A522 and prevented Esteban Ocon from contesting the last afternoon session.

Arriving in Bahrain, new problems came to light in the car of the French structure and, again, Alonso was forced to stay in the garage for several hours while his mechanics solved the mishap.

Despite this, the Asturian driver assured that they had made progress and that during the days of this Friday and Saturday they would continue updating a car that is beginning to find the right path in this 2022 Formula 1 preseason.

“We had a strange day on Thursday, with problems, but we managed to solve them in the afternoon. We have made progress on the car since Barcelona, we have tried new things here and there are still more to come these days.”

“Everyone is working hard. I feel quite happy and optimistic, I think we will be much stronger in the next few days, and hopefully in the first race as well,” he said.

“I think we can say that we have been surprised. The cars work better in high temperatures, we had hardly any problems compared to Barcelona, we made a lot of progress in terms of cooling the car, the brakes, etc.”

“Everything went well and I think we are more motivated and optimistic now,” he continued.

Other important aspects that the Asturian driver spoke about were the new regulations for 2022, which he hopes will gradually equalize the performance of the entire grid, giving the less powerful teams a unique opportunity.

“It’s an interesting question and we don’t have answers yet, I think we have to wait and see how the first few races unfold and see what we need from the package in general. As I said, I’m optimistic because the team is doing a great job and we have the support from our president and everyone who works at Renault and Alpine , who came to F1 last year with their sights set on these regulations to try and be a title contender in the future.”

“If that will come in 2022 or 2025 I have no idea, but that commitment exists and it is a vision that I share and defend. Now we are just testing things, in Barcelona we completed a good number of laps and so far, we are having a good day ( Friday) with Esteban”.

“I hope we have a good afternoon and that we do well in the first race as well. I remember last year I retired here and Esteban was 12th or 13th, we took zero points from Bahrain and then we won a race in Hungary and enjoyed the season from then on, so I think this year we’ll see what happens, I’m sure we’re going to have a good season,” said the Spanish rider.

The arrival of Otmar Szafnauer to the team also appears to have been a turning point for Enstone’s structure.

“I spoke with him at the factory, before coming to Bahrain. He is working well and has a lot of experience. He motivates us all a lot. It was a great decision to have him, he gives motivation to the team and he will surely make us work better, we are delighted to have him here.”

The Asturian also spoke of the differences that are being seen aesthetically between all the cars on the grid, something that has surprised the FIA and Formula 1 itself.

“I think every car looks different. But you know we drivers don’t really understand anything about how it all works, so we just drive as fast as we can and that’s it.”

“We have confidence in our team and our designers, so we will always say that our concept is the best. But then you have to wait and check it out on track.”

“I agree that these cars are very different to drive, we will have to adapt quickly as drivers but also as engineers, it is the whole team that has to identify what the biggest differences are. Low speeds, understeer or steering problems traction will force us to develop new ideas and work with the car in a very different way in terms of set-up.

Finally, Fernando Alonso explained the reason for his little participation in the Netflix series Drive to Survive : “Until now I have had other commitments with Amazon Prime Video and Amazon, so I have not been able to do too many things outside of that. I know that “It’s a good thing for F1, but we are very busy with our teams and with our sponsors, and it’s not easy to spend time with them. I think we already collaborate a lot in the paddock, but outside the circuit I don’t like to do it.”