The improvements are working, the reserve left in Aston Martin, and the public remembers the best period in Fernando Alonso’s career – with the optimism of the local hero’s values at the end of the opening day in Barcelona.
After Monaco, Fernando Alonso is Max Verstappen’s number one chaser in his home race as well. The Aston Martin veteran and his team dedicated Friday’s first free practice to testing and evaluating the new tyres, but showed more of themselves in the second hour.
Team president Mike Crack maintained that the first practice, in which the sixth and 15th were scored, was of little significance. “The first hour wasn’t free practice, it was a test. We tried the Silverstone tyres. It was important to gather information about everything, the new line. Everything went according to plan for us, but the results have to be treated with caution.” – Caution between the two training sessions.
Alonso finished just 0.1 seconds behind the defending champion in the second training session, and then indicated that there was still a reserve in the AMR23, which received innovations for Barcelona.
“It’s so close that with a difference of one or two tenths you can end up in a very different place overall.” The Spaniard stated about their jump between the two training sessions.
“We didn’t pay much attention to the time results. We did everything we planned ahead of time and that’s good. We learned things about the tyres, and the track is maybe a little slower than we expected. We can still find time with the settings, but it was a productive Friday.” – Valuable.
Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)Aston Martin, like its competitors, brought developments to Barcelona. Among other things, its front and rear wings have been modified. Alonso doesn’t even care if they work.
“Yes. Yes. Absolutely! There is no new element added to the car that does not help in terms of performance! It has always been like this with the team since Bahrain.”
Smile confidently. He added, “We are satisfied with the developments. We will see what happens on Saturday when everyone goes with all their might.”
The atmosphere reminds us of the Renault years
Alonso has been treated like a man by the fans on the track since the fans were allowed in on Thursday. His boss also talked about the special atmosphere between the two training sessions. “You can feel that energy not only on the racetrack, but all over Barcelona. We had two events and the atmosphere there was incredible. And it was incredible in the pit lane as well as in the fan zone. Lots of energy, lots of environment.” crack said.
Alonso confirmed that he was enthusiastic about the support. “In terms of sales and merchandise, I hear sixty-seven percent of it is green. An amazing thing.”
“It reminds us of 2005, 2006 and 2007 when everyone wore the same color.”
Photo: XPB“I feel the support and the special energies. In the morning there was a great fan forum, and as I was driving, even if I couldn’t hear them, I could feel their enthusiasm. I hope we put on a good show for them.”
His teammate Lance Stroll hasn’t put in a good show yet. He was fifteenth in the first practice, only eighteenth in the second, one second slower than Alonso. “We had a bit of a difficult day. We weren’t very quick. We’ll see what we can do. There are many things we can check.” – Rate Al-Kindi with his distinctive brevity.
