Will Alpine have a good start to the season?
Fernando Alonso smiles just before the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season and he does so thanks to the fact that the Alpine team finished the winter tests with good feelings despite the problems suffered for several days. The Spaniard completed 122 laps on the last day of testing on Saturday and ended with the sensation of arriving at the start of the course “better than expected”.
Alonso finished the Bahrain tests with the third fastest time, mounting the C4 tire, and behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, or what is the same, of the two cars that start as favorites, Red Bull and Ferrari. Despite the optimism, Alonso remembers that in the tests nobody knows what the next team is testing.
VIDEO: This is the Alpine A522
“We needed a clean day without problems. We have learned a lot about the car in these two days and I think we are going to arrive much more prepared than I thought, so I am happy,” Alonso told DAZN at the end of the pre-season tests, with a smile on his face, something that years ago at Alpine and before at McLaren, was very difficult to see.
“We don’t know what our rivals have tried, nor the test program or the fuel they carry when they go out on the track. We have to wait until next Saturday to find out where we are. We will focus on ourselves and our plan to arrive as best as possible to the race”, said the Spaniard.
For this reason, it is very difficult to know where the Alpine team is compared to its rivals, although it is clear that they will be behind what we believe to be the leaders after the winter, Red Bull and Ferrari. Behind them there will be a very competitive middle part, where Alpine may have a lot to say against McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpha Tauri… and, of course, Mercedes.
The star team, after presenting an aggressive concept of its W13, seems to have problems to obtain a performance with which to face the favorites. Unless they have cheated a lot, in Bahrain they will not be up, but knowing the way Brackley’s work, it is a matter of time before they are in the fight.
During the Bahrain tests, Alpine has completed a total of 1618 kilometers of training, the equivalent of 299 laps. 153 belong to Esteban Ocon and 146 to Fernando Alonso. The biggest scare of the tests was the fire in the car in Barcelona, which prevented the rain tire test.
“Wow, this car is fast”
While Alonso is a little more restrained in his statements to the media, within the team he would have expressed his surprise with the Alpine A522 that he is going to drive this year. Alan Permane, chief engineer of the team, has given some details in an interview with “AS newspaper”, which makes it very clear that “El Plan” is still very much alive.
“Fernando, already on Saturday, was still not entirely happy, he wants to go faster and sees problems with the car (he laughs). He is much happier, of course. He had a high fuel load for much of the day, and then With the C3 he already felt the fast car, he said it: ‘wow, this car is fast”, he confesses.
“He was happy, he could feel the performance of the car. We didn’t put qualifying fuel, but we did put a little fuel. When you start to get used to that level of grip and speed you find new problems. I wouldn’t say that the drivers are ecstatic and expect to do the pole, but I hope we are in the fight, in Q3,” he adds.
Alpine is not satisfied with the good sensations of the tests and therefore will continue to develop the single-seater in the near future. This week, just before the start of the season, there will be improvements to the flat bottom and then new evolutions will arrive for the fourth or fifth race, in Miami or Barcelona.
