Fernando Alonso suffered a painful abandonment in the last Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia, when on lap 35 of the 50 scheduled at the Jeddah circuit, the Renault engine of his Alpine A522 said enough. At that time, the Asturian driver was in 7th position, although it was a virtual sixth due to the fact that Lewis Hamilton still had to make the pit stop.
In this way, the Spaniard lost 8 valuable points for the championship, and his frustration was visible from the moment he got out of the car, repeatedly hitting his helmet as he walked towards the garage.
However, Formula 1 returns to a talismanic track for the two-time world champion, Albert Park, where he achieved a victory in 2006 and five podiums, in addition to the fact that Melbourne was the city that saw him debut in the Great Circus in in 2001 with Minardi.
“I like the track and, although it is quite difficult to overtake, changes have been made to favor it, so we will see how it develops,” Alonso acknowledged before the start of the Australian Grand Prix. “We deserve to be much higher up the leaderboard after two races.”
“Our car has been good, as has the performance over the weekends. The last grand prix was disappointing as we seemed to be comfortable in sixth until we retired,” said the Alpine driver, clearly disappointed with his last race in Jeddah.
The two-time champion, despite only having scored two points so far this season thanks to his 9th place at the opening round in Bahrain, is optimistic about his car, and believes that they must focus their efforts to achieve their goals: “It was frustrating , but we can be satisfied with our general pace so far. Sundays are when the points come in, so we have to make sure we score points then.”
“The whole team is working hard to make sure that we remain at the top of our development, and that is that in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain we had some clean and exciting races,” said the man from Oviedo.
Fernando Alonso had to deal with his teammate’s thirst for a fight in Jeddah, as Esteban Ocon did not make it any easier for the Spaniard to overtake, something unusual when dealing with two members of the same team.
Alpine had to stop the Frenchman after some controversial maneuvers on the main straight, where he closed the Asturian against the wall , but Ocon is left with other aspects before landing in Australia: “Without a doubt, it has been a very positive start for me. The more I drive the new car, the more I understand it, and I think as a team we are moving in the right direction.”
“We are showing that we are competitive from the beginning, and that is a good sign for everyone,” explained the Frenchman. “The last time we were in Australia we left under some very strange circumstances, and the world has changed a lot since then.”
Esteban Ocon sat out the last round at Albert Park in 2019 because he didn’t have a seat in Formula 1, but he scored points in his first race in 2017 with Force India by finishing 10th: “I’ve always liked racing there, and the atmosphere is great”.
“I think despite the distance we all enjoyed going back there, Melbourne is a great city, and I’m glad we can finally get back. Hopefully we can put on a good show for the passionate Australian fans.”
