Waiting to see first-hand how far the revamped Alpine can go with which the French team has been presented at Silverstone, Fernando Alonso is positive after the good feelings obtained on the opening day.
Alpine appeared at Silverstone, the tenth round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship season, with an A522 that had some new ‘ferrarized’ pontoons that make a Fernando Alonso smile again who comes from resting the bitter pill that meant finishing 9th in Canada after several misfortunes and a final penalty that ended up destroying his 2nd starting position on Sunday.
The two-time Spanish champion in the premier category of motorsports has managed to rise to the last position of the Top 10 after score in the last four grands prixquite a streak for him considering that, so far, he had only scored points in the opening round in Bahrain.
However, the first day of the British GP has left the Spaniard with a good taste in his mouth: after Free Practice 1 in which the #14 did not even set a time to his name, 6th position in Free Practice 2 already dry, although with many things to adjust by all the teams, it makes him face the rest of the weekend with some optimism.
restrained joy
«Today has been very difficult for everyone with Free Practice 1 in the wet, which has limited any significant shooting», Alonso confessed after giving only 1 lap in the morning. “We only had FP2 to complete part of the program properly, and I think we need to do several more evaluations regarding the package that we have brought to Silverstone.”
«We would love to have more hours on the track, but it’s the same for everyone! We will have to work a little more tonight to be in the best possible position for tomorrow’s last free practice sessions and qualifying,” added the man from Oviedo to conclude.
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While the biggest scare for Alonso came when facing Copse due to serious pouring that he suffered while tracing said mythical curve, on Esteban Ocon’s side, a small fracture in the bodywork of his single-seater forced him to face the end of Free Practice 2 in a more relaxed way, in order to play it safe.
“Preliminary data suggests that they are working well,” acknowledged the French pilot with the intention of extracting more performance from alpine news in the day on Saturday.
“Preliminary data suggests they are working well”
Finally, Matt Harman, Alpine Technical Directorrevealed that improvements to the Alpine A522 were concentrated “mainly around the flat bottom and bodywork”, making the look of the single-seater significantly different from what was seen in Canada a couple of weeks ago.
“The main changes to the floor are around the diffuser tunnel and the edges”Harman added, clarifying that the bodywork now features “a more pronounced groove to improve flow to the rear of the car.”