In the round-up: Esteban Ocon is encouraged by Alpine’s much-improved pace from last weekend.
In brief
Alpine’s improvements mean they can fight with McLaren, Ferrari
Alpine struggled for pace at the opening two races in Bahrain and Imola, but scored a strong double points finish yesterday.At the end of the race, both cars were able to fight and finish ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren, which Ocon said reflected on the scale of their improvement.
“It was a really fun race,” he said. “Definitely good to have some battles with the cars that were quicker than us in the first two races. It definitely feels good to have done such a step in terms of performance.”
Alpine pace too much for Alfa Romeo points hope
A resurgent Alpine was bad news for Alfa Romeo, who remain point-less after yesterdays race. It came as a disappointment to Antonio Giovinazzi after he beat the Aston Martins.
“It was just a clear race from my side,” he said. “I had some fun with Fernando in the beginning and some fun with Sebastian in the end. We started P12, today we were faster than Aston Martin, slower than Alpine. So it was not enough to be in the top 10.”
Tsunoda says respecting track limits had no effect on pace
Yuki Tsunoda was warned about respecting track limits during the Portuguese Grand Prix, his engineer telling him he could not go over at turn one again after two warnings. It was the second track limit warning Tsunoda has had since making his F1 debut, having been also warned in Imola.
Asked by RaceFans what he changed from then on in the race, Tsunoda said it had little effect. “To be honest, not much, I respected the track limits after that and I don’t think it affected the car performance.
“There’s a lot more space to make the car improve, to have more pace, so I don’t think the track limits were affecting it.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
So close once again (Alfa Romeo)
"It was a mixed Sunday for us: on the one hand, we lost one car through contact between team-mates, which is one of the worst things that can happen, in a sporting sense, to a team; on the other hand, Antonio did a really good job in the remaining car, keeping behind most of our direct rivals and finishing just outside the points."
2021 Portuguese Grand Prix (McLaren)
"This result strengthened our hold on third position in the Constructors’ Championship, which is obviously very encouraging. It’s important we keep developing the car and delivering strong performances over the next few races – starting at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in less than five days’ time."
Portuguese GP 2021: Race report (Ferrari)
"Today’s result was not what we were expecting. We were unable to capitalise on the potential seen in qualifying and that cost us a lot of points in the Constructors’ classification."
Portuguese Grand Prix: race recap (Haas)
"It was a weekend with progress. I know I keep on using the word progress, but that is what we need to make, and we’re doing it."
2021 Portuguese Grand Prix (Williams)
"The car has shown some good traits this weekend, but we are still lacking the stability that we need to be able to race in the pack. With the tyres hard to keep in their working window, once you start losing places, it is very difficult to recover."
Crawford to race on Sunday, Foster dropped 4 positions on Race 3 grid (Euroformula Open)
" Jak Crawford (Motopark) will be taking part in Race 3. The American Red Bull Junior driver is turning 16 today, therefore taking delivery of his international licence. The Stewards have authorized his participation, although he could not take part in any session of this event, as he has extensively tested on this track with the Dallara 320 during the winter."
Driving Seat Blog #10 (Project CARS)
"Update 5 will also feature the complete livery set for the current season of for Formula E, all approved and licensed by each Formula E team."
What happened to NACAM F4's visit to Houston this weekend? (Formula Scout)
"Pictures were posted by the series from free practice and qualifying, then five hours later it declared that the event was now a pre-season test rather than the opening round. After much internal and online confusion, series CEO Flavio Abed then stated 'we start at Monterrey with four races per weekend', insinuating that the May 4-5 round at Texas’s Motorsport Ranch was now either also a pre-season test or cancelled entirely."
Euroformula Open round 2: Autodromo do Algarve (Euroformula Open via YouTube)
IndyCar round 3: Genesys 300, Texas Motor Speedway (IndyCar via YouTube)
S5000 round 4: Eastern Creek (S5000 via YouTube)
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
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Comment of the day
Lewis Hamilton took another win today – his 97th in his career – and iCarbs says there’s one obvious way to prevent him taking a 98th: competitors need to replicate Hamilton’s ability to recover from his own errors and capitalise his rivals’:
It’s very, very simple. You have to be near-perfect to stop Hamilton and Mercedes. Yep I expect probably more occasional mistakes from all the drivers, but Red bull have got to capitalise where Mercedes fall down, even if it’s a minor trip.
I don’t really care if Hamilton makes mistakes in all the races, for the rest of the season, in order for Verstappen to be a real contender and a worthy driver to take the mantle from Hamilton, beat him with the best tools you ever been given to take him on.
@icarby
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On this day in F1
- 40 years ago today Nelson Piquet won the San Marino Grand Prix after the leading Ferraris dropped back on a drying track. Carlos Reutemann took third behind Riccardo Patrese to hold onto the championship lead.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
3rd May 2021, 4:06
That comment reminds me of alonso with mclaren early 2018: now we can fight! Too bad it was ocon who said something along those lines now.
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd May 2021, 4:37
Good to see Alpine more competitive this weekend. Although I don’t think it’s a permanent kind of form.. Renault was also peaky last season where they were really strong on particular tracks and nowhere to be found on others. Overall, the team is too inconsistent to make any bold predictions for the whole season.
They need to get both drivers performing at a top level to maxisimise every opportunity though… Right now Fernando has a lot of improving to do in consistency and quali pace. If it was Fernando of old racing this weekend he would have probably finished in P5 with ease.
Adunlucas
3rd May 2021, 5:19
Alpine clearly evolved. Bug they are still behind Ferrari and McLaren. They didn’t show that Van keep at same pace that Leclerc and até far from Norris.
But is great to see Ocon doing a ver good job. Maybe there is hope for 2022.
kpcart
3rd May 2021, 11:42
The other way to look at it is that Ocon didnt do well in first 2 races, and that his teammate is playing catchup at start of season. Alpine has a good car, in second half of race Alonso passed Ricciardo on track, drove away from him and was catching up to the ferraris.
Mayrton
3rd May 2021, 7:51
Keep dreaming Ocon. Portimao is not representative for anything
Dave
3rd May 2021, 16:26
It’s just not easy with Fernando but there’s 20 (or 19) races to come.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd May 2021, 7:52
Even if Alpine could challenge Mclaren and Ferrari regularly, the points gap is still relatively big.
I doubt this event’s pace would be permanent for the remaining season, but time will tell.
kpcart
3rd May 2021, 11:40
Where would Ricciardo have finished if he was still in this team? you would expect ahead of Ocon. it is really weird how all highly rated drivers switching teams, Ricciardo, Vettel, Sainz (and Alonso coming back) are a bit behind teammates in the first few races, but it was a very short pre season, though I think Alonso might have turned that around during this race, stellar drive.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd May 2021, 12:48
Eaeily the least political GP this season, still awful though, at least the race was not cringy, finally a decent race.
Dave
3rd May 2021, 16:12
But it still won’t be easy with Fernando. Or is it all already foreshadowed?