After a frustrating Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in which Fernando Alonso was forced to retire when he was very close to sixth position, the Spaniard traveled to the renovated Melbourne track to try to add up the points that escaped and, why not, a new podium to the five that has already signed in Australia.
The Alpine driver finished in eighth place in the first free practice session at Albert Park, although in the afternoon session he managed to climb to fourth place that makes the French team dream after the update of the floor in the A522.
Once Friday finished, Fernando Alonso got out of the car and shared his impressions: ” We had some small things that delayed us a bit in the first free practice sessions, but we still managed to have a fairly normal day for us.”
“We have completed a good number of laps and we have obtained a lot of information in both sessions,” said the man from Oviedo at the end of the day. “There are some balance issues that we need to work out, especially on the higher fuel runs.”
The two-time world champion enjoyed an exhibition aboard an Australian Supercars before getting into his Alpine, and that served as a first contact with the modified circuit: “Obviously, I saw the track yesterday, but I think the changes are positive And the lap is much quicker now. I’m not sure if there will be more overtaking on Sunday, but we’ll see, all in all it’s great to be back here in Melbourne.”
The Enstone team is confident of improving throughout the weekend to go in the right direction and achieve upward dynamics after the setbacks in the Spaniard’s Renault engine at the start of the course.
Apine Technical Director Alan Permane also shared his impressions after the first day of action on track, and was positive: “It’s great to be back in Melbourne as it’s definitely one of the highlights on the Apine calendar. Formula 1”.
“The resurfacing and modifications to the track have transformed Albert Park from one of the most bumpy to a smooth and flowing circuit,” continued the Briton. “In terms of our performance today, we can be reasonably satisfied with the cars in both practice sessions, but there is still work to be done, in particular to get the most out of the white tire on the first fastest lap attempt for the classification”.
“We have run the medium and hard compounds with lots of fuel to assess the behavior in the race, and this has been adjusted to our simulations. Overtaking will be difficult on Sunday, so it is essential to extract the maximum from all the parts in qualifying” , sentenced the technical manager of Fernando Alonso’s team.
