The race spotlight for the 2022 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix went to Fernando Alonso, who made an impressive comeback from the back after a heavy hit with Lance Stroll to cross the finish line in seventh position. However, after a protest from the Haas team, the Oviedo driver lost the points achieved, as the FIA considered that his car was dangerous for the rest of the competitors because any element that came off could have hit a rival.
Leaving aside the controversy of the international federation about whether he acted well or not, the French team was impressed with the ferocity of the two-time Spanish champion to recover from such a blow, something that, if seen on television, one might think that car It would only advance a few meters to end up retreating.
The director of the Enstone team, Otmar Szafnauer , spoke to the media once the test was over, and explained how Fernando Alonso’s great comeback was carried out: “We saw the data, the aerodynamic loads and the components, but also We checked it at the pit stop, in addition to the feeling of the pilot, who is the one who can tell you what he feels”.
“We didn’t do a single lap on the medium, and it was the best tyre. Unfortunately, it was the compound it was on when it crashed, and we had to ditch it to go back to the hard, which wasn’t that great,” said the boss. “So if the accident hadn’t happened, the strategy would have been different.”
“Fernando [Alonso] seemed to think that the biggest disadvantage was having to run on the hard tire again,” said the Alpine chief executive. “We did the whole race with the hard one, and it was the one to use, it was the medium tire to use.”
“We did I think four laps with the medium, and then we put the hard back on, that was the biggest problem for me. The medium, as you saw with Magnussen, did 38 laps, so we could have gone with the medium-hard until the end, and having a much better race, we would have been 30 seconds ahead,” explained Szafnauer .
When asked if he had seen any major damage in the real-time data provided by the car, he replied: “I don’t know how many Gs [forces] we saw, but it was a traction and tension rod [that was damaged], and It’s not carbon, so it was perfect. If it had been a carbon component, it wouldn’t have survived.”
“Maybe too robust! We have to analyze it, but in that case, it worked,” he said between laughs before commenting on how he saw the accident between his still driver and Lance Stroll on the backstretch of the Circuit of the Americas.
“It doesn’t happen often, but when it happens in a case like this, it can be catastrophic,” he said. “I’m glad both drivers are OK, that they learn from it in the future and don’t do it again. We’ll leave it up to the FIA, but it’s likely that in future there will be a grid penalty at the next race [ how it ended up happening], that’s what I think, don’t let me guess and then I’m wrong”.
“Talking to Alan [Permane, Alpine’s technical director], it seemed like Fernando was making the move to pass, and then Lance [Stroll] looked and turned, so Fernando made the move first, and then Lance went to him,” he said. the boss of the Gallic team.
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