Alpine joins the battle: "We will need few races" | Formula 1

Despite already having McLaren at 38 points and Ferrari at 31 in the Constructors’ World Championship, Alpine does not rule out joining the battle. This has been recognized by its competition director, Davide Brivio. The team, like Fernando Alonso, requires time, but they will be competitive in a few races. The former boss of Joan Mir has publicly defended Alonso after he finished tenth, behind Esteban Ocon, in the Emilia Grand Prix. Romagna. “I enjoy seeing someone as great as this athlete”, Davide Brivio has recognized. “Fernando did not press more not because he did not want to, but because he did not find the circumstances to press one hundred percent, both for his part and for the car”, the Italian continued. “Being honest and open, as much as possible, Fernando’s talent is there and his ability is also there, the motivation is incredible. In my opinion, after two years it is not something instantaneous nor that easy, we need a few races to ‘get back’ on the grid. The first race in Bahrain was very important to redo all the procedures and fight for positions, but not everything is covered in one race. This second race may have been useful as well, “added Davide Brivio.” We needed a few races to get his personal set-up ready. I see the potential of someone like him, of course “, he concluded. Alonso believes that he has to improve more than Alpine Regarding the latter, Fernando Alonso has pointed out:” I probably need to improve more than the car at the moment, because in Bahrain I felt that I needed to speed things up, in the procedures, I don’t know, the first lap, the formation lap, the pit stop, things that were new to me after three years ”.And it is that the Asturian was especially self-critical after the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. “I have changed teams, or competition, several times, and you always have to go through a period of adaptation. It was never an excuse and it won’t be now. I should have done better, I was not at a suitable level, but I will be in Portimao “, he declared optimistic for the third race of the World Championship. Alpine and its problems with the wind tunnel For its part, Alpine has admitted that it had problems with the tunnel of wind that are affecting its performance. “We knew we experienced some problems during the winter with the regulatory changes, but we also had some problems in the wind tunnel that slowed down development. We knew we had not had the best winter possible. And therefore we expected to be behind in rhythm “, confessed Marcin Budkowski. Even so, in the same vein as Davide Brivio, the CEO of Alpine has confirmed that the French team will not give up on 2021:” We are working hard to try to improve our performance and that is clear from the number of improvements we have here ”. “We are further behind than we would like to be, so it is going to take a little more than a few improvements. It seems that the car is progressing this weekend, but we have more work to do in the next races, “added the Pole. Alpine needs to do well in 2021 to be able to do well in 2022Alain Prost, who is an Alpine advisor, recently spoke about the importance of the team having a good season: “Everyone talks about 2022, because everything is directed towards then, but to do the best possible in 2022 you have to have done the best possible in 2021, even if the cars are not comparable.Team, environment, structure, motivations, synergies at the highest level since 2021 ”. However, the regulation change that is called to end the dominance of Mercedes will come into force in 2022, a year that is a priority for Alpine over this. Optimists for next season, Alpine has promised Fernando Alonso the best history car. “What we want to do is continue to build what we have. The Enstone team has changed a lot in recent years, working on a car that has reached its limits. It is a good car, it is not the best as we can see, but it is a good car. This does not mean that we want to extract the maximum in each race and also adjust the operation of the organization while we make sure to build the best car in history for the next regulatory era ”, Laurent Rossi assured a few days ago.