McLaren driver Fernando Alonso is eager to get back on track this weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, a circuit where he has enjoyed the top step of the podium twice previously.
The first of the Spaniards victories came whilst driving for Renault in 2008, a race that will be forever remembered for the yellow flag incident involving Nelson Piquet Jnr. Whilst driving for Ferrari in 2010, Fernando fought off the two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber to register his second victory at the circuit.
Fernando is currently in his second year driving for McLaren Honda, and the chassis has performed well at tight and twisty less power dependant circuits. A impressive 5th place finish on the streets of Monte Carlo was followed up by a 7th place finish at the hungaroring, further proof that the Woking chassis performs well.
Going into this weekend, Fernando is fairly optimistic for a strong result. Already this year car 14 has scored 30 championship points for McLaren, which is already 2 points more than the whole team accumulated last season. McLaren Honda will be hoping to keep the momentum swinging in the right direction on a track that certainly offers more to them than most.
“We knew Spa and Monza would be among the two most difficult races on the calendar for us,” said the Double World Champion.
“Now we move to the end-of-season flyaways and we’re optimistic that we can continue pushing for more points and more positive results.
“Singapore is a really fun track, very bumpy and challenging, but it’s a quirky layout with a lot of stop-start sections and really fast straights, so you need a car that works well in high downforce set-up and has good traction out of the slower corners.
“I’ve won there twice before, and the floodlights and energetic fans give it a really exciting atmosphere.
“Over the past few races, we’ve shown good consistency in our performances, so I’m optimistic that we can continue this form in Singapore.”
Would it be asking too much to suggest a podium finish for the popular driver / team combination?
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Will Jensen be be taking one for the team this weekend?
Depends on a lot of factors i.e. team politics, how the race start goes etc.
Anyway some interesting rumours floating around about Honda’s 2017 PU (anything from a complete redesign of the ICE to changing the concept entirely), Alonso sounds chipper so maybe he knows something we don’t.