Alonso regrets that Alpine only changed engine with one car

September 10, 2022

The grid for the 2022 Italian GP of F1 was conditioned even before the event started with the first free practice session. Several pilots were obliged to penalize for replacing one or more elements of the engine and exceeding the limit allowed for the season, and that list has been growing as the hours passed until reaching eight sanctioned.

As the FIA and F1 do not publish the grid at the end of qualifying, there was a lot of debate and chaos on social networks and in the paddock itself about what the starting positions would be. For example Max Verstappen qualified second but had five places, which led many (including the driver himself and his boss Christian Horner ) to calculate that he would have to start seventh.

However, Alonso made the same calculation that we have done, and after a moment of doubt, he confirmed it before the DAZN F1 microphones:

“I start seventh. Who penalizes? Pérez, Sainz and Hamilton… only three, yes, seventh”.

Although he was slow to complete his first fastest lap, Fernando Alonso moved up to seventh with his first attempt in Q1, and came out on worn tires for a second stint in the dying moments. Despite the fact that others improved, the Asturian had no problems to be 10th and go to Q2.

In Q2, in an even middle zone, he saved ninth position, and only 16 thousandths separated Lewis Hamilton (5th) from the Spaniard. Already in Q3, Alonso had to abort his first lap. With a new set of soft tires and no slipstream, he started in the last three minutes, but what would have been his best lap (1:21.8) was invalidated for exceeding track limits.

“It is what it was. Without those track limits I think the lap was to be eighth, so eighth or tenth…”, he summed up. “We lacked a bit of pace today in qualifying, we actually missed out on Q3 with one car, so it’s going to be a bit of a defensive race trying to score some points.”

Alonso knows that there will be several faster cars behind because of the penalties. And after noting that he was the only Alpine in Q3 (his teammate Ocon in Q2), he regretted that he was not on the sanctioned list with a new engine with which to attack on Sunday.

Esteban Ocon does have a fresh power unit, and the two-time champion pointed to the fact that the team only chose to change it to the Frenchman: “Very fast cars are coming from behind and we started seventh. I hope to be close to the points zone.”

“We had the opportunity to change the engine here, which with all the penalties I think would have been good for us, but we had to do it with just one car, because if you don’t lose the rhythm of the race a bit, the opportunities…”

“But hey, scoring points in the race is the goal,” he concluded.