Fernando Alonso: “The car felt quite good and enjoyable to drive, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow”

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso spent his forty-first birthday lapping the winding Hungaroring for the Friday practice sessions, finishing practice one in tenth and putting together a strong effort to take sixth in practice two. 

Alonso said that the team was able to experiment with the car’s set-up on Friday, and that he was happy overall with the way the car drove and the knowledge they walked away from practice with. 

With rainy weather forecasted for the rest of the weekend, however, he is unsure of how everything will go when it comes time to compete in the wet conditions, which often provide much variability across the grid. 

“It was a productive Friday today and we tried a few different things in terms of the car set-up. The weather looks very changeable tomorrow and Sunday, so who knows what we will be facing, but we gathered some good data and ran a smooth programme in both practice sessions.”

“The car felt quite good and enjoyable to drive, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I must say it was also very nice to drive around Budapest on my birthday!”

“Today could likely be the only dry running we have before Qualifying or even the Race.” – Esteban Ocon

Returning to the venue that hosted his first-ever Grand Prix win in 2021, Team-mate Esteban Ocon placed ninth and thirteenth on the timesheets after the completion of practice one and practice two in Hungary, respectively. 

Ocon said that he was pleased to have completed two trouble-free practice sessions, having gained valuable information ahead of what is expected to be a rainy weekend in Budapest. 

“It’s great to be back driving in Budapest as lots of great memories came back to me! In terms of our running, it was good to get two practice sessions under our belt. We are still unsure about the weather forecast for tomorrow and today could likely be the only dry running we have before Qualifying or even the Race.”

“We’ve extracted a good understanding on a variety of things, which puts us in good shape for the rest of the weekend. As we know, rain here can make things interesting so let’s see how that pans out and see what we can achieve.”