Fernando Alonso has reason to smile in Monaco | Formula 1

Fernando Alonso has been out of the Top-10 in both FP1 and FP2. Carlos Sainz, for his part, has been second in both sessions, although he has played down his results by saying that they were only training sessions. This is precisely why Fernando Alonso affirms that the two Alpine will be in Q3 and will leave with Monaco points. “It was an intense Thursday, as it always is in Monaco. I think we did a good job with 64 laps in total, we have gained some confidence with the car and I am happy with it. We have to analyze the updates and we will try to get as strong as possible to the classification “, said the Asturian after Free 2. However, making a good classification will depend on the traffic he finds, something that Fernando Alonso wanted to emphasize:” Driving the Traffic will be difficult on Saturday, today we have already seen several examples of how hard it is to have a clean lap at this circuit. Dealing with it well could be the key to getting a good result in qualifying. ”Alonso went against the barrier in Free Practice 1 in Monaco Another factor to take into account will be the walls. Precisely in Free Practice 1 Fernando Alonso brushed against a barrier and had to change the front wing: “I touched the barrier in 2010, that was much more painful because after that I missed qualifying. Today it was just a little kiss and then we continued ”. Monaco is a tough test even for the most experienced drivers! #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 # F1 pic.twitter.com/NEiSyNjb56 – Formula 1 (@ F1) May 20, 2021 Regarding his options for the race, the two-time champion had previously indicated : “Enter Q3 and score points for both cars. We have to do our work especially on Saturday, but it should be possible.The car should go well in Monaco. ”Alpine wants to hunt down Ferrari and McLaren More optimistic has been Fernando Alonso for the next races, where he is confident that Alpine will hunt down Ferrari and McLaren:“ From what we are seeing, we are very excited for the upcoming races, but we must be cautious. We took a big step in Portugal, we didn’t know if it was a specific track or a real one, but it was very nice to confirm in Barcelona that it was real. I think Alpine is now in that fight with Ferrari and McLaren, so that’s a positive trend. ”Despite this, the Spaniard is aware that Ferrari will be unattainable in Monaco:“ Ferrari seems stronger here, that’s for sure, too much strong for us, but I guess the middle of the grid is going to be very tight. We need to optimize everything and maximize our package for Saturday. ”“ I think we still need to find more pace and more confidence in the car, but it has been quite useful to make several set-up changes, different directions. I think now we need to put it all together and improve our performance for Saturday ”, concluded Fernando Alonso. The importance of downforce in Monaco With regard to the Monaco Grand Prix, although it is true that Alpine has a worse engine than its direct rivals, Fernando Alonso is aware that in Monte Carlo downforce is more important than power. In addition, his experience is a plus point in a circuit that penalizes a lot for errors. On the other hand, Marcin Budkowski, CEO of Alpine, advanced: “For Monaco we have another small aerodynamic update of the car.We also gained a better understanding of our package which will hopefully allow us to further improve our performance in the upcoming races. ”Along the same lines as Fernando Alonso, the Pole added:“ In general, the A521 is better suited to the road. low speed corners, even though we have improved it throughout the season on medium and high speed corners. Monaco is all about downforce. ”Qualifying and the drivers will make the difference Marcin Budkowski also spoke about the importance of qualifying and the drivers in Monaco. Regarding the first, he commented: “There is no more important circuit for qualifying than Monaco because it is very difficult to overtake during the race. We have been in good qualifying form the last two races and we are going to focus on maintaining this momentum in qualifying with both cars as high up on the grid as possible. ”On the latter, the Alpine CEO added:“ It is a circuit in which drivers need time to get used to riding so close to the guardrails and to find within themselves the ability to push the limits a little more each lap, but without exceeding them because the penalty is immediate. It is a track where the driver really makes a difference in Formula 1. ”“ Our race in Barcelona was not exactly how we expected, but we confirmed that we have improved the car thanks to a continuous flow of developments and experiments at both factories, ”concluded Marcin Budkowski. .