Fernando Alonso: “I’m confident we can improve things and be in good shape for Qualifying”

It was a low-key day for the BWT Alpine F1 Team at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Friday, with neither Fernando Alonso nor Esteban Ocon breaking into the top ten in either practice session.

Alonso admitted the balance of the A522 was not to his liking and he expects changes to be made to the car before Saturday’s running, although he said they did learn a lot on Friday when it came to tyre management amid the hot temperatures in the south of France.

Despite ending the second session eleventh – he had been fifteenth in the morning – Alonso hopes the changes to the car will enable him to fight for the top ten in Qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a challenging Friday for us especially driving in these extremely hot conditions in France,” said Alonso.  “We tried to adapt the car as best as we could to deal with these high temperatures and focused on tyre management and cooling down during the two practice sessions.

“On reflection, we are not totally happy with the balance of the car so far and we need to look at some potential changes overnight.

“I’m confident we can improve things and be in good shape for Qualifying tomorrow in front of our home crowd.”

“We have a good read on information to make the right adjustments” – Esteban Ocon

Team-mate Ocon says there is ‘definitely more to come’ from Alpine this weekend in France, and he feels the data they have gathered will enable them to make the necessary adjustments to jump up the order on Saturday.

Ocon, who is delighted to be racing in front of his home fans this weekend, was thirteenth in the morning session in France and a lowly eighteenth in the afternoon, but he is confident there is plenty of pace in the car to unlock before Saturday’s running.

“First of all, it’s great to be driving in France again in front of the home crowd,” said Ocon.  “There’s nothing that beats racing at home and it’s just a great feeling to drive around Circuit Paul Ricard as a French driver and already seeing so many fans on a Friday.

“In terms of the sessions today, we tried different things on both cars, and it was all about gathering a vast amount of data. We tried Soft and Medium compound tyres plus high and low fuel and we have a good read on information to make the right adjustments on the car for tomorrow.

“There’s definitely more to come.”

Esteban Ocon feels there is pace to come from Alpine this weekend – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd