Fernando Alonso says it is “overly optimistic” to think Alpine can bridge the gap with Ferrari this year. However, the two-time world champion does not rule out the possibility that his team will find something that will allow them to take a huge step forward.
Alonso is back in Formula 1 hoping to fight for the podiums and win again, but that seems a long way off for Albine this season. In terms of speed, the A522 still lacked making it difficult for Ferrari and Red Bull and what doesn’t help is that Alonso has already had bad luck in three races. He only got two points thanks to a ninth place in Bahrain, the Spaniard retired in Saudi Arabia and in Melbourne, the strategy failed and he came out on points.
However, in Australia, Alonso believed in finishing the podium if he didn’t crash in qualifying. But making it consistently difficult for Ferrari this season will be a tough task. “It will be difficult to match the speed of Ferrari,” Alonso admits. “We are eight tenths to a short second based on qualifying performance in the first races.”
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Alonso said it was therefore “very optimistic” to expect the Alps to fill that gap this year. “We have to keep working. We are still at an early stage with these cars. You may find something bigger than expected when testing in the wind tunnel. You may have taken a huge step forward.”
In any case, Alonso is hoping he gets a little more lucky. “I am speechless,” Alonso said in Melbourne. “We had a huge weekend in Saudi Arabia, again now. But we took zero points in those two races. It’s hard to explain.” Despite all the misfortune, the Alps have looked very strong in the last two races, which makes Alonso optimistic. “But here’s the problem: You don’t have guarantees that you’ll be fast in the race weekend. When we’re fast, a lot of things happen to us. It’s weird. We’ve had three races and haven’t had any luck at all, so we’ll be very lucky for the next 20 races.” .
