In the round-up: Fernando Alonso says it’s unlikely Alpine will be able to make up the gap to Ferrari in 2022.
In brief
“Difficult” for Alpine to catch Ferrari in 2022 – Alonso
Fernando Alonso says Alpine may have the potential to find a “huge step” on their car this season, but admits it’s unlikely the team will be able to make up the gap to Ferrari out front.Alonso believed he was in genuine contention for a possible podium position in Australia last weekend, before crashing in Q3 after a hydraulics problem, eventually finishing out of the points in 17th.
“To match the Ferrari pace, I think it’s going to be difficult because obviously, we are eight-tenths, or one second behind at the moment, looking at the first two races in qualifying performance,” said Alonso.
“To close that gap, it will be a little bit too optimistic – but let’s see. We need to keep working, and it’s so early days on these cars, that you may find something much bigger than what you thought at the beginning, when you test it on the wind tunnel, and maybe you make a huge step.”
Nailing W13 set-up on Friday crucial at sprint weekend – Shovlin
Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, says that it will be critical to “hit the ground running” for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
As the first sprint race weekend of the season, the race at the Imola circuit will only have a single one hour practice session. Shovlin says that it will be crucial for Mercedes to get their cars set up right before qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon.
“The big challenge for the teams and the drivers with the sprint format is that you’ve only got one hour to get the car sorted for the qualifying session for the sprint race and for the main race on Sunday – and that’s difficult,” says Shovlin.
“Now we’re on very much a learning curve with these new cars and the tyres, so that Imola race is going to be difficult. If you hit the ground running, you’re probably going to have a good weekend. If you put the car on track and it’s a difficult one to deal with, it might be quite painful.”
Moving from four car team to three has been “positive” for Penske – Newgarden
Penske driver Josef Newgarden believes that the team moving from a four car operation to only three in 2022 has benefited the organisation.
Newgarden and team mates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin are Penske’s three drivers for this season after Simon Pagenaud moved to Meyer Shank for 2022. Newgarden believes downsizing has been helped the team to focus.
“We’ve compacted everything,” said Newgarden. “We’ve sort of narrowed in on kind of our focus and what we need to be really looking at and how we can control the whole group.
“It’s a little easier to get your arms around it when it’s three versus four, so I do think there’s a positive impact, short-term, that we’re seeing going from four to three.”
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
🤔 Smooth operator or WRC Legend? Funny reactions in last year’s hot-laps at Fiorano!
–@CSainz_oficial #Carlossainz pic.twitter.com/P8AluoOqDe
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) April 17, 2022
There’s no right or wrong way of adapting any car. It seems most series do not offer any guidance on legality either. It seems all we can do right now is develop and ask for approval from our series.
The system we are using at @BHA is an altered version from Guidosimplex. https://t.co/6xonovYXFb
— Robert Wickens (@robertwickens) April 17, 2022
Yes team 👏👏 What a way to start the season 🏆@PREMA_Team @LouisDeletraz @Fhabsburg62 @lore_colombo12 https://t.co/XZTyb1XpI7
— Juan Manuel Correa (@JMCorrea__) April 17, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Fernando Alonso And Sergio Perez's Australian Supercars Run (F1 via YouTube)
"Ride onboard with Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Sergio Perez as they take a spin in Australian Supercars from the Supercars Championship series"
French F4 round 2: Nogaro (French F4 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
This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is @dave-m!:
The FIA issued Ricciardo a 10-second penalty for excessive blocking
@dave-m
Thanks to everyone who came up with caption idea this week and a special mention to @rdotquestionmark, @srga91, @nullapax and @badger who all came up with particularly good captions.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Alan and Consi!
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
18th April 2022, 0:59
“If you hit the ground running, you’re probably going to have a good weekend.”
Pretty sure the Mercedes hitting the ground while running is one of the key reasons they’ve been having terrible weekends!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th April 2022, 1:05
@tommy-c clap clap clap!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th April 2022, 1:11
On a serious note. I’m really looking forward to how teams are going to cope with Imola’s elevation changes.
jff
18th April 2022, 7:19
I doubt they hit the ground running on porpoise.
Gabriel (@gabf1)
18th April 2022, 9:27
Also very good! @jff
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
18th April 2022, 2:53
Congrats @dave-m on the cap comp win. There were other good ones but this was hard to beat.
As an aside, can anyone point me to the winner of the previous cap comp. I must have missed it, but I cant find it.
jff
18th April 2022, 7:24
The previous Caption Competition was not shared/declared.
I guess we were all winners ;)
PS (@WillWood) It would be better to quote the runners up, or link to the specific entry. If you only mention their handles it is not always clear which ones you liked (multiple entries).
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
18th April 2022, 8:54
Thanks jff. At least I know I am not going mad. (and I’m happy to live with an equal first, shared with a few dozen others :-) )
On your second point, I believe there used to be a direct link to the entry concerned. Probably just an oversight this time (in addition to the omission of the previous results).
Qeki (@qeki)
18th April 2022, 8:43
@cairnsfella you took the words out of my mouth
Jere (@jerejj)
18th April 2022, 7:30
Indeed & I doubt they’ll catch next season either.
Yes, nailing set-up is crucial with a single FP before QLF (another between QLF & Sprint like last season), but in any case, the competitive order among the top three teams will probably be the same as thus far.
jff
18th April 2022, 8:49
Who’s the third?
I’m not convinced that Mercedes is currently third fastest on pure pace.
Ancient1 (@ancient1)
18th April 2022, 9:42
So is ALO looking to do better in ’23, thus fuelling the rumour mongering that Alpine will serious consider loaning out PIA???
Qeki (@qeki)
18th April 2022, 19:05
That might be the situation. Alo wants to continue in ’23 but if Piastri comes alongside him Alo might get flashbacks from a certain rookie from 2007. If Alpine can at least be in this years Merc level and if they will sign Pia alongside Alo they could have a mega lineup.
Sviat
18th April 2022, 21:20
First, Alpine has signed Ocon until 2024, if I am not mistaken. Why would they sack him? Ocon is the last winner for Alpine, he has 10 times more points than Alonso this season. There’s no reason to sign him off.
Second, Alpine will not be at Mercedes’ level. Not this year, not next year. They are far from Mercedes’ level even now, when Mercedes has huge problems. In three races, Mercedes got 2 podiums and a second place in both championships. And how many podiums managed Alpine? None. What’s their place in the WCC standings? Fifth. Three times less points than Mercedes (almost, 65 to 22×3). Alpine even managed to lose to McLaren.
What will happen next year? Alpine will not disappoint – they will fight for top 5 at best, as usual.
SHR Modding
18th April 2022, 23:59
Yet if you ask any sane person who they reckon will outscore the other 9 out of 10 would say Alonso over Ocon. I respect ocon, good driver and very reliable scorer but results and points don’t tell nearly the whole story of this season or even last season for that matter. The way you just gloss over the results and points standings shows me that either you didn’t watch the races or you’re not taking everything into account in purpose. You cannot just dismiss Alonso based on results alone like that
Alpine was every bit a match for the merc in qualifying and in clean air during the race. Can it hold on to that I’ve no idea. Was it track specific, we’ll have to wait and see.
SHR Modding
19th April 2022, 0:02
Lol by your logic red bull and sainz are also no match for Mercedes, Russel is 2nd in the championship. Lol get real
David
19th April 2022, 22:25
Catching Ferrari is out of touch with reality unless they start to do a really exceptional job and don’t see any signs of that from the team in several years. A more appropriate goal would be to finish p4 in wcc, with a stretch and luck maybe p3. Think what Alonso can realistically hope for is a couple more podiums and maybe a lucky win for the remainder of his F1 career. Not being a hater would love to see a great comeback story against the odds but can’t see it happening