F1 packed up in Spa and headed to Zandvoort, less than four hours away by road, where this weekend the first Dutch GP since 1985 will take place in the land of Verstappen. The ‘no career’ gives way to the present and the announcement of Alpine, that confirmed Fernando Alonso for 2022 in the hope that the partnership will function for many more years. For that, there are three factors that have to be aligned: driver, team and car.
Looking ahead to its continuity in the Great Circus from 2023 onwards, The 40-year-old Asturian is confident of a strong Alpine and a competitive Renault engine in 2022 finish convincing him of the team’s possibilities, and also allow him to confirm his good feelings at the wheel fighting for better positions. And is that this 2021 is being interesting, they have the fifth car and they have won a race (Ocon in Hungary), but they roll too far from the podium fight under normal conditions.
That was not in the plans. “I hope that next year we will have a package to fight for competitive positions and be better. We had expectations this year after three podiums from Renault in 2020 and we didn’t find that, we expected to fight for several podiums this year but Ferrari improved, Alpha Tauri improved a lot, McLaren also, and in the end we fought between eighth and twelfth place “, Alonso transmits on the A521. Ricciardo made two third places in the Renault RS20 (Nurburgring and Imola) and Ocon, a second in Sakhir.
“We want to improve and that would encourage me to continue later“, maintains Alonso, an A522 capable of going up to the ‘drawer’ in any grand prix would be enough. Enstone has been working for months on the project to change the rules and the Viry factory is preparing a completely new power unit to use from the next campaign. It will be necessary to follow the evolution of the market sideways because most pilots finish their contract in December 2022.
“For my part, I must also continue to improve. As I have said many times, I am not one hundred percent and days like these prove it (in reference to Saturday’s classification in Spa). If I see progress on my part, why not keep running? If I am not up to par, I will be the first to raise my hand and say that a new face is needed in the team. I hope not, I hope to raise my hand and say that I am ready for the challenge of 2023, “he says. He already warned last Thursday, in a small group of journalists, that” a young pilot has not yet been seen who arrives and is faster “than the two-time Spanish champion with the same car.