Following Alpine’s double retirement in Austin, Alonso and Ocon are confident of bouncing back from that hard blow by squeezing their A521s on the Formula 1 return to Mexico, a country neither of them have raced since 2018.
Being in the top ten consistently throughout the weekend, especially on race day, is Alpine’s goal for the remainder of the season in order to maintain the fifth position currently held by the French in the constructors’ championship, immediately ahead of AlphaTauri just 10 points behind.
Fernando Alonso achieved this goal in the two free practice sessions on Friday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez: 7th in the morning and 10th in the afternoon, with 53 laps in his bag that will be very useful for when the real fire begins in the classification.
“The circuit started with very little grip today due to the altitude, and there was also a lot of dust, which made it even more slippery in some parts of the track, “said Alonso, referring to an inaugural free practice session in which many drivers blocked tires, tested the loopholes and some even hit the protections and lost their wing rear.
«The evolution of the track is enormous, something quite obvious if you look at the times of the two practice sessions. This makes it very difficult to understand any change in the car between FP1 and FP2, ”continued the Asturian driver from Alpine. “We have some work to do, but let’s see if we can find some solutions for tomorrow. It was good back to a relatively normal Friday for us after a tough one in Austin. It was also great to see the passion of the fans here, tomorrow should be exciting! ”He concluded.