Fernando Alonso: “To win in Singapore I need a lot of things”

The street circuit of Marina Baywhere this weekend the F1 Singapore GPis one of those Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso They have been marked on the calendar since the beginning of the season. Aston Martin He started the course with the second best car and his strengths were maximized in the urban layout of Monacowhere Alonso He held the pole and victory. Singapore is another event where Fernando He will be looking for his long-awaited 33rd victory due to the characteristics of this urban track, but things have changed a lot since the event was held in the Principality and the overall picture is not the same.

Since then, teams have wanted McLaren and Mercedes They took a big step forward and it was great Aston Martin On this track the question remains whether he can overcome them moving and to those Brackley in a classification heavily weighted for Sunday’s final result. Furthermore, it remains to be seen if the improvements that worked so well in his debut at Zandvoort also allow the green car to be close or on par with the Red Bull on this track.

“What do I need to win here? I need many things. The first thing is to see the checkered flag, because Singapore is a very demanding race and everything in the car is hotter than usual. And you have to have of confidence. Let’s see if “We can build confidence like we did in Monaco or Baku from the start of free practice and have a good race,” said Fernando Alonso at the press conference ahead of the 2023 F1 Singapore GP.

Against the Aston Martin is the elimination of the previous turns 16, 17, 18 and 19, a very twisting place that favors the characteristics of the car with right angles. Aston Martin, and that should harm him by being transformed into a straight line. For this reason, and know that Red Bull and Max Verstappen They are at an incredible level, Fernando Alonso He remained vigilant for his chances of success in Marina Bay.

“I hope to be fast in Singapore, but it is difficult to predict. In Monza we are not competitive (because of the long straight on the Italian track), but here it should be better, although everything is very close. In some races we are the second fastest and “In others we feel like we’re fifth or sixth, so we’ll see. It’s a privilege to fight with the best teams, but we go to every race.”, argued the driver from Oviedo, remembering that his car was very competitive on a track like Monaco, but that it was not very competitive in Baku. “We have to wait and see…”, Alonso said, not giving up second place in the Constructors’ World Championship for his team.

“We’ll see, there will be ups and downs for everyone. It’s hard to predict, but we are fighting with the strongest and enjoying every moment. We will go race by race and try to take advantage of the right opportunities”he commented.

Go for a single registration

Fernando Alonso also pointed to the historic record he could achieve in this Sunday’s race. If he completes the first 16 laps of the Singapore GP, the Asturian will become the first F1 driver to reach 100,000 at the wheel of an F1 in a single race.

“They are kilometers of racing… each practice, classification or test never counts. I remember the first year as a test driver, in 2002, I did 40,000 km in that season alone. If you add up all the numbers, that’s a lot of laps. I hope we see the checkered flag on Sunday. Normally, that gives you some points here because anything can happen. We will see the next few years and how many more complete laps,” he argued in this regard.

In that sense, he must have exceeded a million kilometers in competition between tests and races in the various competitions in which he drove. “I don’t know. In racing cars, for sure. Because I have been testing and doing many laps every week, off the tracks too. Well, 8,000 in Dakar plus 10,000 tests, so many kilometers. ,” he remembered . .