If he starts well on Sunday, Fernando Alonso will equal this weekend the record for Grands Prix contested, 350, currently held by Kimi Raikkonen.
The Spanish driver was asked about his achievements in F1 during this long period, which is not over since the double world champion has extended his career for 2023 and 2024 with Aston Martin F1… which should take him further. contested beyond the 400 Grands Prix!
« I know the number because I get told it all the time, but I’m not that interested in it. I’m happy to be in Formula 1 for so many years and with the other two to come, or soon. no matter how long i will be in Formula 1 i will definitely reach 400 so that is a big number and yes it shows my passion for the sport and my discipline to perform at the highest level. not performing well, a team certainly won’t give you an F1 for 400 Grands Prix. »
It remains to be seen whether he can settle for seasons where he is still not in the fight for victories. At best, podiums, from time to time…
« Yes, yes, I appreciate for sure. We would like to fight for the championship or for podiums and victories but we do not have this possibility yet. But yes, I am happy with the performance this year. start of the year, I think we have lost a good 40-50 points with reliability issues. And with those points, the situation in the championship would be very different, well ahead of McLaren, so I’m happy and proud of my performance. »
« I think 2022, along with 2012, were probably my two best seasons, even better than 2005 and 2006 when I got my titles because we had dominant F1 in those years. So 2012, 2022, the next will be 2032! »
Going back to 2022, Alonso is on a streak of 10 consecutive points finishes, Alpine F1 is on 5 in a row with both cars. What do these statistics say about his current level and that of the team?
« We’re on a good streak now. We’ve found consistency although the last 10 races haven’t been without problems either. One of them was Barcelona; we changed the engine, we started in Another was Austria the car didn’t start the sprint race and we started on Sunday last so we still need to improve some things to have completely clean weekends and if we do, we will probably be in the points in future races. »
Points but what about podiums?
« We’re in the same place we’ve been all year. We’re just behind the top three teams, so our natural position, let’s say, is seventh, seventh and eighth, so we always need help from the cars in front of us. Sometimes there are penalties like at Spa and we start third on the grid. Here there are other penalties that will come with Carlos and Lewis, so we could have a better position to start, but in the race we finally found our natural position because these teams are much more efficient and can make up for these penalties. »
Did you miss our previous article...
https://formulaone.news/aston-martin/plenty-of-laps-on-the-opening-day-at-monza
