Fernando Alonso will be joining the Aston Martin team at the end of the season, but he intends to make the most of his last few moments with Alpine. In particular, he wants to continue the fight against McLaren in the constructors’ standings, but the Spanish driver issues a warning to his Alpine team.
The Spanish driver is looking forward to the resumption of the world championship this weekend in Spa revealed in recent interviews, despite Fernando Alonso leaving Alpine to join Aston Martin at the end of the season. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up on the end of this season with the French team.
The Spanish driver is determined to help his team overtake McLaren in the constructors’ standings. He wants to make the most of his last moments in the French car, which he will be driving this weekend after a month’s summer break, at the Belgian Grand Prix at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
“I want to enjoy the rest of this season with Alpine after a solid first half of the year. We still have a lot to achieve together, and I will push hard until the last race in Abu Dhabi,
“Our goal is to finish fourth in the Constructors’ standings, and I think we’ll have to fight with McLaren for the rest of the season. We have benefited from an intense development plan in the first half of the year and have consistently outperformed our closest rivals on the track in recent races.”
The two-time champion issues a warning to his team, not to lose focus and drop their pace in the development battle with McLaren. The Woking team having just announced the departure of Daniel Ricciardo.
“We need to keep up this pace of development in both our factories if we are to maintain our position,” Alonso warns.
Formula 1 has taken its traditional break during the summer. This allows the drivers to recuperate, but the lack of racing is not easy to manage.
“We all miss the racing in August, but we need this time off to recharge our batteries. After 20 years at the top of motorsport, I’ve learned that time to recuperate is crucial, especially during such a busy year,
“Now that we are racing more than twenty times in a season, it is even more important to maximise your recovery time. But it’s important to keep a certain exercise routine, because once we start racing again, it doesn’t stop until December,” admits the Alpine driver.
The race will resume this weekend in Belgium on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit that Fernando Alonso particularly likes.
“I like driving at Spa. It is one of the most legendary tracks on the calendar. The races there are generally interesting because the circuit offers many opportunities to overtake,
“The weather is always mixed, so there can be some surprises. We wouldn’t mind a little bit of rain this weekend because the car does very well in these conditions,
“We want to put on a show for the fans, especially after what happened last year,” says the former world champion.
The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa starts this Friday with free practice.
A true race car driver. I hope the team continues to fight for the win over Mr. Personality’s team.
This writing outside the quotes is unbelievably hard to read.
“We all miss the racing in August, but we need this time off to recharge our batteries.”
What a total load of BS!!
It was only just over ten years ago that they curtailed in-season testing but previously, the top teams would be testing pretty much all the time.
McLaren in the early 90’s had Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Emmanuele Pirro and Jonathan Palmer testing 4-5 days a week.
Williams, would have Nigel Mansell, Ricardo Patrese, Mark Blundell and Damon Hill testing constantly.
And during the Schumacher era at Ferrari, Schumacher, Irvine or Barrichello, Luca Badoer and Marc Gene would test all week long at normally two circuits.
As to the current generation, when the teams arrive in Barcelona or Bahrain, how often do you hear drivers running 2,3 or even 4 race distances per day?
Fernando’s comment is a touch sad…
Lawrence Stroll May have plenty of money but it just proves you cannot buy talent.
The boy born with the silver spoon in his mouth is only in F1 because his daddy has money.
Alonso will run rings around him, even in the boy gets the upgrades first.
Alonso is the No1 driver because Alonso in the better Man, it’s that simple
Lance Stroll isn’t a # one driver on any team in in F1…in fact he shouldn’t be a #2 either. Thanks Daddy!!!!