Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Imola, 2022

Alonso finds little joy in sprint race fights against much quicker cars

2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Fernando Alonso said there was little enjoyment to be had from his fights with other drivers in Saturday’s sprint race as most were able to pass him easily in quicker cars.

The Alpine driver started the race from fifth position but fell to ninth at the finish as the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez overtook him.

Asked whether he enjoyed his battle with Sainz, Alonso said: “Not so much, I mean, there is no race at the moment there.

“It’s like fighting with Lewis [Hamilton] last year or [Max] Verstappen. They start last and they finish in the podium still, so there is not much to fight.”

“I lost every battle that I was in,” Alonso admitted. However he does appreciate some aspects of F1’s sprint race format.

“I do enjoy it, yesterday we had already some action with qualifying, today again. Free practice are definitely more boring than racing.”

He believes the sprint race format adds extra interest to a grand prix weekend. “I think the fans enjoyed today. If I was at home and I put the TV, I saw something better than a free practice or anything else. So I think that’s a positive thing.

“Tomorrow, maybe everything changes and people that recover a lot of places today, Perez or Sainz, they touch in the first corner and they are in the gravel and it’s a dramatic change. So I think it’s part of the show.”

While Friday’s qualifying session produced a varied grid, in the sprint race the quickest cars rose to the front-running positions to start Sunday’s grand prix. Alonso said that was to be expected. “This is Formula 1, it has been like this always,” he commented.

“When [Ayrton] Senna won the championships and the races, he had the fastest car. When I won the championship, I had the fastest car. Michael [Schumacher] had the fastest car and Lewis broke all the records in pole position because he had the fastest car and today he’s driving super-well and he’s P15. So this is Formula 1.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Browse all 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

5 comments on “Alonso finds little joy in sprint race fights against much quicker cars”

  1. Drs made passes automatic. Great racing.

    1. No it didn’t. Alonso with DRS was losing time behind Magnussen.

  2. “When [Ayrton] Senna won the championships and the races, he had the fastest car. When I won the championship, I had the fastest car. Michael [Schumacher] had the fastest car and Lewis broke all the records in pole position because he had the fastest car and today he’s driving super-well and he’s P15. So this is Formula 1.”

    I think this leaves space for arguing, I’d say senna always had the fastest car when he won the title, except maybe 1991, I think I remember williams being faster but less reliable than mclaren, schumacher didn’t have the fastest car in 1994 and possibly 1995, and then in 2000 it was up there with mclaren, same goes for 2003 with mclaren and williams, and alonso himself didn’t have the fastest car in 2005, he had the best car on balance since mclaren was fastest but had terrible reliability, and even 2006 it’s arguable if renault or ferrari was fastest, as for hamilton indeed, he wouldn’t have got the records he got without the fastest car, but he won 2008 without the fastest car.

    1. I don’t think the term fastest car is suitable for the championship. I think it needs to be changed to « driveable and competitive ». You need a car that is decently fast, but you need to drive it. Just look at the 2019-2020 Red Bulls. Also, the 2017 Ferrari was more driveable and easier to handle than the 2017 Mercedes before Hamilton managed to handle it and Vettel had no chance against him. I’d rather have a car that is driveable rather than fast, maybe 60% driveable and 40% fast. Because fast cars mean nothing if you cannot drive them, especially if they are unreliable. Driveability is part of reliability too, because it is a « trust » to the car.

      1. Noframingplease (@)
        24th April 2022, 7:25

        @krichelle reading your opinion it looks like you drove them all and compared them. There is a slight chance you didn’t. What makes you say the RB of 2019-2020 was the more driveable car when MB drove easily away in a lot of races. It is plain simple the MB was the fastest car the last 7/8 years. That some fans like to spiceup the capabilities of their driver by saying he wasn’t even driving in the fastest car is just bias.

Comments are closed.