Alonso explains why he was so fast in the Austin race

After taking a real bath in a shopping center in Mexico, in front of thousands of people who shouted his name and filled four floors of the venue to see him up close, Fernando Alonso showed his surprise at what he experienced in Mexico. capital at the wheel official press release of the 2023 F1 Mexican GP.

“It was an incredible surprise, I was in the hotel and they told me that there were 2,000 people in the shopping center waiting for me. The enthusiasm of this race and of Mexico City in the Grand Prix is ​​something very good see. . I hope I can give them a good result in everything,” commented the Spaniard before starting to analyze what happened less than a week ago at the United States GP.

There, in Austin, Aston Martin debuted a new aerodynamic package, but since it was a sprint weekend, they only had FP1 to test the settings and then they couldn’t touch the car, because it would go to parc ferme regime. However, a brake problem in FP1 complicated the team’s work, which entered qualifying blind, something which caused Alonso to finish 17th. With that bad result, on Sunday they had nothing to lose and could have gained a lot if they had made the race a test, changing the settings of both cars, even if it meant leaving the pit lane. Alonso came out with the configuration of the Qatar and Stroll car, including the improvements, to make comparisons. And both cars are very fast.

explained Alonso

In that sense, Fernando Alonso lowered expectations and clarified that the image seen in Austin may not be completely true because the rest of the teams did not configure their package perfectly, because they did not change the configuration. of their cars.

“It’s a combination: We optimized the set up (regulation) and our rivals went along with the arrangement of a free practice session. That’s the big difference”Alonso said.

“We only had one Free Practice in Austin and we suffered big problems. On Sunday we decided to change the settings and start in the pit lane, in my case with the Qatar configuration. It was a good result for us and a lot We have obtained information for the following races. We had the opportunity to change and compare to have a better drawing of where the car is,” he commented.

Looking forward to this weekend, the Spaniard remains optimistic, although he is more optimistic because he has more free training sessions to continue to understand new pieces and thus achieve the perfect set -up for qualifying.

“It is a completely different circuit, with different needs, so we will use all the free sessions. Now we are more relaxed and happier to have three free practices to optimize things”Fernando said.

Verstappen, Mercedes and Ferrari

Verstappen starts as favourite, with Mercedes at the back after how well his evolutions in Austin went. It remains to be seen if Hamilton can handle Max, and also if McLaren can stay in the fight to be the second best car on a track that may not suit it. Ferrari, inside one turn, should be fast, but what it can do on Sunday is unknown on this track. Meanwhile, Aston Martin is not expected to fight for the podiums this weekend despite the expected optimization of new parts that debuted in Austin.