What Alonso is still lacking on his F1 return

fernando alonso's formula one return after two years out ultimately yielded nothing more than the 61st dnf of his grand prix career but at the age of 39 the two times world champion showed encouraging signs that he's on his way to recapturing his best form despite saying he's not yet at 100 as alonso himself put it you will enjoy the comeback alonso has not returned to formula one to qualify ninth and retire while in the hunt for minor points finishes however this low-key but positive start suggests he will have a starring role to play in the midfield this season despite the alpine being far from the strongest car in that pack do subscribe to the race if you haven't already done so if you don't want to miss any of our extensive coverage of the 2021 formula one season the rigorousness of alonso's preparation for his first f1 season since a difficult final year with mclaren in 2018 it's well known but despite his virtual home pit wall set up to follow races last year controversial participation in the end of season young driver test and pre-season testing programme he inevitably went into the bahrain grand prix weekend not at his sharpest during the three free practice sessions esteban ocon generally had the edge thanks to a combination of alonzo's rustiness and the struggles to instruct performance in the hot afternoon sessions fb1 and fp3 the general trend was positive the deficit was reducing but he was still trailing ocon by around 0.4 seconds as they headed into qualifying alonso admitted he wasn't totally confident with the car balance during any of the practice sessions alonso went on to qualify ninth head of aston martin driver lance stroll but despite saying he enjoyed the feeling of qualifying alonzo hinted he wasn't quite at the absolute limit in terms of trusting what the car could do but overall the alpine performed better in the cooler track conditions of the evening session alonzo mentioned that he's still mastering the tyre preparation on the outlap and finding the maximum performance from the peaky pirelli rubber but given his skills and experience it won't take long for him to be back at his absolute best on saturdays in the race alonso enjoyed plenty of airtime given his battles in the tight midfield pack he jumped carlos science at the start then moved up to seventh when pierre gasly suffered front wing damage alonso was eighth after being passed by lan stroll before alpine took an aggressive strategic approach and brought him in at the end of lap 11 for the first scheduled pit stop of the race that briefly gave him track position ahead of daniel ricardo and stroll although he then started to be shuffled backwards not helped by an energy deployment problem he reported that the team confirmed could not be fixed while alonso largely proved effective in battle a misjudgment while trying to clear sebastian vettel who ran a long first stint allowed science to pass him but the lack of pace of the alpene meant he dropped back during this stint by the time alonzo made his second stop he had been passed by sergio perez kimi raikkonen and yuki sonoda after emerging from his pit stop alonzo was warned about right rear brake temperature this soon resulted in his retirement when it was put to him after the race that it seemed he'd never been away alonso suggested there was still more to come i was not at 100 he admitted which bodes well for the driver alpine has staked its hopes of finally emerging as a race winning force next year on alonso predicts an improvement over the upcoming race weekend to immolar and algarve in terms of his own performance it's difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the overall performance level of the alpine a521 but given the strength of ferrari mclaren and alpha tari the evidence so far suggests it's in the bottom half of the midfield pack prior to qualifying the expectation was that the alpine drivers would struggle to get into the top ten but even an undercooked alonso was able to dig deep and turn in a lap good enough for ninth on the grid while he was assisted by sergio perez and yuki sonoda failing to make it to q3 alonso deserves credit for delivering during q2 when others didn't but so far we've only seen the 2021 f1 cards in action at one circuit meaning there's more to learn from the very different track configurations offered by the next three events at imola algarve and barcelona knowing alonzo's work ethic and determination to add to his tally of 32 grand prix victories it won't be long before he's back at his brilliant best then it's simply a question if if alpine can produce a car worthy of his abilities over the next couple of years let us know how impressed you've been with alonso's comeback so far in the comments and if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like and subscribe you

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 126,680

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, fernando alonso, alpine, F1 2021, Bahrain Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon, Renault, Alonso F1 comeback, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 analysis, F1 Imola, F1 Portugal, The Race, the-race.com, @wearetherace, Edd Straw

Id: f9BOiixRWuc

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021