Fernando Alonso keep insisting. No doubt. Without looking back. Just look ahead. And the following is the Monaco GP. The Asturian driver had a very complicated weekend Imolaa race he had to scrap to prioritize aerodynamic work and collect data with adjustments to his car from the more experimental, less optimal FP3, to try to shorten the path in the right direction.
Today, despite driving the car at Imola which is very nervous and difficult when you push it to the limit on a lap, the man from Oviedo is optimistic about being able to find a way to regain confidence in this car between the walls of the F1 Monaco GP with intense work on the adjustments and balance of your vehicle from Free 1. That’s the key. Without confidence, in Monaco, it will be very difficult to be competitive in the most important part of the weekend: Saturday’s qualifyingwhich practically determines the fate of the drivers in a race where it is almost impossible to overtake (only on approach or if it rains, which does not seem to be the case).
The Asturian driver believes that if he can develop his confidence in the car from free practice and then take advantage of a good moment to do his qualifying laps, he can opt for a good result due to the unique characteristics of the track this, where race speed counts for little because of how difficult it is to catch up.
“Let’s see. I think Monaco is very unique. I came here with very competitive cars and we were not very competitive and vice versa. I came here with poor cars and then that weekend I was fifth or sixth. So I think it’s a little unknown.”he explained.
You need to have confidence in the car in FP1 to gain momentum heading into qualifying. And then the race is another story. So I think it’s a bit unknown what the weekend will be (we can do) … things are so close between all the teams that here you can be in the Top5 or out of Q1 within two tenths for a second. And it’s pretty hard to predict at this point. But I don’t know, I have good feelings this weekend.”commented the Asturian driver in the press conference he held at the Aston Martin hospitality, in the port of Monaco, where MD was present.
“I prefer dry weekends (laughs)”he said looking out the window at the rain, an element that never expected to reappear despite the fact that in Monaco’s microclimate there can always be surprises. “Even if I’m a little less competitive than driving in Monaco in the wet it’s not very pleasant, but we’ll see.”
“I think we are ready for everything. There is no doubt about that Last year, we probably had higher hopes than this year. All the cars look very strong in the slow corners in 2023. So Monaco is on the calendar as an opportunity for us. But this year, you never know, I think we have had ups and downs. “We’ve been qualifying very well (in the beginning).”
“I did a third position in qualifying in China a month ago. So if we can repeat those kind of laps on Saturday if the tires are ready and warm for that first performance lap, and then on Sunday, it’s less of a problem.”degradation, rhythm and that kind of thing. So we remain optimistic that we can have a strong weekend. “I’m really ready for this,” he added.
MCLAREN AND FERRARI AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT: ALONSO TRUSTS LAWRENCE STROLL
“It shows that it’s a complex sport. McLaren in Austria, in race 7 last year, they were fighting for Q1 and they have a great team, you know, great people, great facilities and a great that’s also the brand behind them and they’re from Q1… and then you see something in the car that brings it to life, you know, and then everything changes for us until, say, mid-season , we’re the team to look at and. yeah, you know, you can go back two or three steps. So now we have to focus on ourselves.
“I think unlike other teams we have a good leader with Lawrence (Stroll, owner), we have not only the owner of the team, but also a very competitive person behind us and we fix things faster than other teams, I think. And it’s thanks to him.”
SAME BALANCE LIMITATIONS AT IMOLA?
“Yes, basically I think we both (Stroll, his teammate, and him) have similar feelings about the car and similar comments. There are some tools in the set-up and direction that can be improved , something we also have is testing at Imola, for example, in my car on Sunday But fundamentally, I think we have to continue working on the balance of the car.
“We’ve added downforce with all the improvements we’ve made on the track, but we still can’t use all that downforce in a lap-time efficient way because the balance might not be quite perfect in the corners. But you know , we, I think we understand it, we have some ideas that in the next development of the cars and the updates we will try to solve these kinds of problems , but we know the situation, but at the same time, it is also the nature of these cars, that as you add downforce, they become more critical and more difficult to drive fix.
THE SIMULATOR
“The simulator is a bit more, let’s say… it forgives you for a lot of things that the track doesn’t, and when you put the numbers… in the simulator, you’re just faster without too much trouble. , you know, on the balance and things like that, So the simulator is a great tool for the engineers and for the drivers to learn tracks and things like that The simulator is still not that real car. So, yes, we have to work on Friday.
ASTON MARTIN’S PERFORMANCE IS LOW?
“If we lower the performance? I think we have increased the performance of our car. But it seems that the others are a little bit bigger than us and we have dropped a little bit in terms of positions.”
“In my case, I don’t think I’m perfect in these two races, you know, I didn’t drive well in Miami and in Imola, I think it’s more about finding answers, which drives me sometimes in a weekend. I know that the objectives will not be good enough to satisfy the team or myself… when you are not fighting for the top five or top seven or whatever, sometimes you switch to the configuration or test thing because after the P9 I’d rather fix the car’s problems, give up that weekend and start from scratch the next.
“And I think that’s what happened in Imola a little bit in FP3 and then in Qualy and the race which, obviously, on the one hand is good because maybe it makes it a little bit faster to solve the problems, but on the other hand . that end The weekend could mean scoring zero points or being slightly below the competition so, it is necessary to combine the normal weekends where the package and the points that available is increased, even if it’s P9. . and some other weekends need to think if it’s okay and give up P9 now because we need to shorten the time to solve the car’s problems .”
HOW SPECIAL IS MONACO: THE BEST RATING OF THE YEAR
“Definitely, Monaco is different. It’s unique and probably one of the best moments of the season. The whole weekend I think is very special. Maybe Sunday is the only bad day. Let’s call it that, you know, there’s not much you can do .It can be a bit boring too you have to bring the car home and the grid is in the next session a speed you have never experienced (faster in each session due to the improvement of the track).
“So the adrenaline is very high. All the sponsors who want to come here, all the VIPs who want to come here. So I said until Sunday is the best weekend of the year.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
