Breaking news
Formula 1
Alonso has "a lot of room to improve" form during F1 return
Fernando Alonso thinks there is still "a lot of room to improve" from his side despite a strong showing on his Formula 1 race return in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Apr 6, 2021, 3:20 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The two-time world champion took his first grand prix start since 2018 at Sakhir following two years competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Dakar rally among others.
Despite the long absence, Alonso made it into the top 10 in qualifying and was fighting for a point-scoring finish before a sandwich wrapper lodged into a brake duct forced him into retirement 32 laps into the race.
After Sunday, the Spaniard felt he still needed to iron out mistakes and find more speed and confidence at the wheel.
"It was nice," said Alonso of his race. "I had a couple of good battles and some of those had happy endings, some of the were not as we were being overtaken.
"But I need to find more pace from myself and find more confidence and I need to extract more from the car, the brakes and execute the start better.
"It was not too bad but there is a lot of room to improve from my side.
"At the pitstops I think the guys did an amazing job but my position in the second stop was not right. These are small things and mistakes I keep doing from testing and this first race, but hopefully by race two and three I can perform better personally."
Read Also:
- Vettel admits he is “not at home” in Aston Martin F1 car
- Hamilton warns Red Bull "could be ahead a lot more" in F1 battle
- Norris was "punishing himself" with old F1 driving style
Although Alpine did not feature in the leading positions during the opening weekend of 2021, Alonso remains confident his comeback will be enjoyable for himself and those following it.
"I think it is going to be okay. You will enjoy the comeback and you will enjoy the fight that we will put in every weekend," he added.
"I think we always said from the beginning that this is a very interesting and Alpine is in F1 for big things. Maybe 2021 is a continuation of 2020 and we are building the momentum and something more important heading into 2022.
"I hope you will enjoy this comeback."
Despite a disappointing weekend for Alpine, Alonso admitted it was hard to judge the team's position in the pecking order.
"It is difficult to say. I think we saw different results and a bit of mixed feeling for everybody including us. Sometimes we look better sometimes we look a little bit down.
"We will need a couple of races to have a more established order so let's wait and see. Our job is to work harder and identify our weaknesses if there are any and work on those and keep our strengths. It is an interesting season for everybody."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vettel admits he is “not at home” in Aston Martin F1 car
Next article The key quality that enabled Tsunoda's rise to F1
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Pablo Elizalde
Alpine becomes Pramac's main partner in MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP Jan 27, 2025
Alpine becomes Pramac's main partner in MotoGP
Liberty Media's $4bn MotoGP deal facing EU probe
MotoGP
MotoGP Dec 14, 2024
Liberty Media's $4bn MotoGP deal facing EU probe
Ocon wants answers to understand pace slump against Alpine team-mate
Formula 1
Formula 1 Nov 27, 2024
Ocon wants answers to understand pace slump against Alpine team-mate
More from
Fernando Alonso
“Am I confident? Probably not” – The unprecedented challenge Singapore is throwing at F1 drivers
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
5 d
“Am I confident? Probably not” – The unprecedented challenge Singapore is throwing at F1 drivers
Fernando Alonso set for Dakar Rally comeback with Aston Martin
Dakar
Dakar 6 d
Fernando Alonso set for Dakar Rally comeback with Aston Martin
More from
Alpine
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
1 d
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
Latest news
M-Sport’s 2027 WRC Fiesta Kit car breaks cover
WRC
WRC WRC 42 min
M-Sport’s 2027 WRC Fiesta Kit car breaks cover
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
‘I’m sideways all the time’ – How Alpine’s feral F1 car plagued Pierre Gasly in Singapore
Pedro Acosta proposes new idea for monitoring tyre pressure in MotoGP
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 2 h
Pedro Acosta proposes new idea for monitoring tyre pressure in MotoGP
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe