Tremendous stick of Alpine to the critics of Fernando Alonso

Mercedes and Red Bull are one step ahead of the rest. Still, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso followed Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas in Free Practice 2 of the Portuguese Grand Prix. Alonso’s fifth place finish has been highly applauded and who knows how far he will be able to go when he completes his adaptation to Formula 1 after two years of absence. For now, Marcin Budkowski, CEO of Alpine, has taken advantage of the good result achieved by Fernando Alonso to give a stick to those who have criticized his return to the Gran Circo. “In Bahrain I was fine from the beginning, he put the car in Q3 and everyone they applauded him; then in Imola it was all a little less comfortable and suddenly everyone questions his return … typical of Formula 1, you are as good as your last race ”, said the Pole at an FIA press conference. Marcin Budkowski has put in value the self-criticism of Alonso, who was pointed to him instead of the car after failing to qualify for Q3 at Imola. “Fernando was very honest, he raised his hand after qualifying and said: ‘Look, the remaining tenths are me who has to find them.’ People forget that these cars are very, very fast and very, very difficult to push to the limit. We see it with riders who have changed teams in winter and now suffer a bit compared to their teammate, so Fernando has been out for two years. He did a day and a half of testing and from there, to run in Bahrain. With his experience, his talent and his determination, I have no doubts ”, added the executive director of Alpine reiterating his confidence in Alonso. Fernando Alonso, optimistic The Asturian, for his part, commented after Free 2:“I enjoyed driving on a circuit for the first time this Formula 1 season, but I think the traffic could be a challenge tomorrow in qualifying. It’s an exciting track to drive, that’s for sure. ” “It was a good training day for me and the most comfortable I have had this season compared to Bahrain and Imola,” insisted Fernando Alonso. In addition, the two-time champion acknowledged that he is satisfied with the car: “I was happy with the set-up. of the car early in the day, so I mostly focused on getting more acclimatized to the circuit and then evaluating the tires during the two sessions. There is still a lot of data to analyze, but it is a good start for the weekend. ”Webber has criticized Alonso’s return The former Australian driver, who currently serves as a commentator and representative of young talents, thus appreciated Alonso’s return to Formula 1 : “I have a lot of respect for Fernando, he is one of the best I have raced against. What he did against Michael Schumacher, what he did against Lewis Hamilton … he did some amazing things on Sundays. There weren’t many better ones. ”“ But there is a point where… I love to see the youth arrive. I love to ask: ‘where is the next Max Verstappen?’, ‘Where is the next Charles Leclerc?’ They are great for the sport, ”Mark Webber continued. “Fernando is a great name, incredible for Spain, great for sport, but I just wish that our sport should look to the future and find the Alonso it found 20 years ago,” he concluded. Alonso was ruled out by Red Bull because of his age. his age, Red Bull refused to sign Fernando Alonso, although he eventually ended up hiring another driver in his thirties like Sergio Pérez.”As things are today, the return of Fernando Alonso to Formula 1 with Red Bull is absolutely impossible to imagine,” said Helmut Marko, advisor to the Austrian team. “Actually, there are two reasons to argue my affirmation. First of all, there is the relationship between Alonso and Honda, which I think is quite broken, and on the other hand, our entire Formula 1 system is based on our junior program, which means that our young talents move up to the top flight. queen of motorsport. If we signed Alonso, he would be the oldest driver on the entire grid. This would be contradicting our whole philosophy, ”he added. It has also been said that other teams had discarded Fernando Alonso because of his reputation as a bad teammate. This is something the Spanish spoke about recently: “I laugh at that. This is the third time that I have driven for Renault. At McLaren I had two stages. I have been in different teams and I have repeated. Apparently they have always been happy with me because if not, you will not call me again. With Fisichella I keep talking. From Trulli, who lives in Lugano, I received a call when I had the accident offering any kind of help. The same with Stoffel, Jenson, with Esteban. It’s something I laugh at because all my teammates have always been good people and good friends, not only when sharing a team, but also in the rest of my career ”.