Two rooms, two atmospheres at Alpine F1 this Friday in Monaco
The Alpine team had a “proven” day this Friday for the first free practice of the Monaco Grand Prix, seventh round of the Formula 1 world championship.
With an eighth fastest time for Fernando Alonso and an eighteenth fastest time for Esteban Ocon this Friday during EL2, it was two halls, two atmospheres in the Alpine garages at the end of this first day of testing of the weekend with a Fernando Alonso is much more comfortable than his team-mate on a track that does not forgive any mistakes and on which the drivers need total confidence at the wheel of their machine to achieve a good result. Alpine’s technical director, Pat Fry, explained to us this Friday evening that the team had the greatest difficulty in adjusting the two single-seaters for this unique layout, while the F1 cars are now wider and heavier than the previous generation, which obviously has an impact in Monaco on such a narrow and winding circuit.
” The Monaco Grand Prix weekend always presents unique challenges for cars, drivers and engineers. This test day has been revealed, especially with these new 2022 single-seaters, setting the car in a restricted optimal operating window being a delicate exercise. » we were explaining this Friday night Pat Fry.
“Fernando was slightly more satisfied with his car than Esteban, so we have some data to analyze to understand the differences between the two. Like all the teams, we still have things to learn about the tires when the amount of fuel on board is high. All in all it wasn’t easy, but we’re confident in our analysis of the data and our ability to find improvements ahead of qualifying. We know that grid position is often the key to a successful weekend here. »
Classification of EL2 in Monaco