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2021-03-28
MARK HUGHES: THE HINTS OF MORE TO COME FROM ALONSO AND ALPINE
The first instalment of the new Alpine adventure under new management was awaited with almost as much intrigue as the return of its driver, the great Fernando Alonso after two years out of Formula 1.
During testing it was very difficult to read the form of this team which – under a different name last year – was fighting for third in the championship (even if it finished fifth) and which scored three podiums.
On the surface, testing suggested it had fallen behind some of its rivals from 2020 (McLaren) and been leapfrogged by others (Ferrari, AlphaTauri).
The practice sessions leading up to qualifying gave a similar reading. But in the event, Alonso’s graduation to Q3 and recording the ninth-fastest time there was better than might have been expected.
Even more encouraging is that there would seem to be some low-hanging fruit in the performance development of both the car and Alonso in the coming events.
Two facts frame this analysis. The car was much more competitive in the cool of qualifying than the heat of the daytime – and this is to do with its rear tyre usage.
Secondly, Alonso – who had looked perfectly at home during testing – was still very rusty when it came to fully exploiting the car on fresh rubber and low fuel.
Those two things combined initially made his performance alongside team-mate Esteban Ocon somewhat unfavourable. Here’s how they compared run-for-run during the practices.
FP1AlonsoOconHard tyre1m37.3s1m35.5sSoft1m33.5s1m32.2sFP2Medium1m33.1s1m34.0s (traffic)Soft1m31.8s1m31.6sFP3Medium1m35.2s1m34.8sSoft1m32.8s1m32.4s
Their FP2 long runs averaged much the same but were done on different compounds of tyre. You get the idea: Coming back after so long away, Alonso was understandably a little behind the 8-ball when it came to extracting the last bit of performance from car and tyre.
The general trend was positive, the deficit was reducing, but he was still trailing Ocon by around 0.4s as they headed into qualifying.
“I wasn’t totally confident with the car balance in any of the practice sessions this weekend,” he said.
“It was difficult. I lacked confidence a little bit in the rear end of the car. Braking performance was also very different to the test.”
But with a track temperature in the 30s (degrees Celsius) into qualifying rather than the 50s, the car was a much more comfortable drive.
We lost the comparison to Ocon unfortunately, because he made an error on his first Q1 run and caught yellow flags on his second which meant he failed to get out of Q1.
“It’s a shame for Esteban because I think he could have been in Q3 as well,” confirmed Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski.
“His weekend was pretty solid until now. He was actually looking a bit better than Fernando going into qualifying.”
However, even Ocon felt that the gap between himself and Alonso had closed.
“I had had a lock-up into T8 and ran wide, which was a mistake on my side. But Fernando was quick in that session and it would have been close between us.”
“Even the same [in the race] the first time, formation lap, lights, first corner. It sounds simple things for a race driver but after two years it’s going to feel like new for me. Pit stops under 2s, all these things I will have to live it for the very first time again.
“Even the out lap preparation is never the same as in testing when you can pace yourself and prepare by yourself. But in the chaos of qualifying with everyone trying to get space at the same time, I lived again today for first time in two years.
“I’m sure I’ll get better in preparing the tyres, positioning on the out lap, getting the maximum from the tyres which are very peaky. Need to learn how much you can push on those super performance laps the tyre is offering to you.”
Just as he had no preconceptions about qualifying, so Alonso isn’t focusing ahead of the race on what a good position would be.
“I need the information, I need to feel how the tyre degradation is going, how the balance changes. A lot of people around me on the grid have more knowledge of those things. I want to have those things in the pocket [after the race]. If that’s P7 or P11 OK. If it’s P15, OK; I just want that information by tomorrow night.”
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-the-hints-of-more-to-come-from-alonso-and-alpine/
2021-03-28
MARK HUGHES: THE HINTS OF MORE TO COME FROM ALONSO AND ALPINE
The first instalment of the new Alpine adventure under new management was awaited with almost as much intrigue as the return of its driver, the great Fernando Alonso after two years out of Formula 1.
During testing it was very difficult to read the form of this team which – under a different name last year – was fighting for third in the championship (even if it finished fifth) and which scored three podiums.
On the surface, testing suggested it had fallen behind some of its rivals from 2020 (McLaren) and been leapfrogged by others (Ferrari, AlphaTauri).
The practice sessions leading up to qualifying gave a similar reading. But in the event, Alonso’s graduation to Q3 and recording the ninth-fastest time there was better than might have been expected.
Even more encouraging is that there would seem to be some low-hanging fruit in the performance development of both the car and Alonso in the coming events.
Two facts frame this analysis. The car was much more competitive in the cool of qualifying than the heat of the daytime – and this is to do with its rear tyre usage.
Secondly, Alonso – who had looked perfectly at home during testing – was still very rusty when it came to fully exploiting the car on fresh rubber and low fuel.
Those two things combined initially made his performance alongside team-mate Esteban Ocon somewhat unfavourable. Here’s how they compared run-for-run during the practices.
FP1AlonsoOconHard tyre1m37.3s1m35.5sSoft1m33.5s1m32.2sFP2Medium1m33.1s1m34.0s (traffic)Soft1m31.8s1m31.6sFP3Medium1m35.2s1m34.8sSoft1m32.8s1m32.4s
Their FP2 long runs averaged much the same but were done on different compounds of tyre. You get the idea: Coming back after so long away, Alonso was understandably a little behind the 8-ball when it came to extracting the last bit of performance from car and tyre.
The general trend was positive, the deficit was reducing, but he was still trailing Ocon by around 0.4s as they headed into qualifying.
“I wasn’t totally confident with the car balance in any of the practice sessions this weekend,” he said.
“It was difficult. I lacked confidence a little bit in the rear end of the car. Braking performance was also very different to the test.”
But with a track temperature in the 30s (degrees Celsius) into qualifying rather than the 50s, the car was a much more comfortable drive.
We lost the comparison to Ocon unfortunately, because he made an error on his first Q1 run and caught yellow flags on his second which meant he failed to get out of Q1.
“It’s a shame for Esteban because I think he could have been in Q3 as well,” confirmed Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski.
“His weekend was pretty solid until now. He was actually looking a bit better than Fernando going into qualifying.”
However, even Ocon felt that the gap between himself and Alonso had closed.
“I had had a lock-up into T8 and ran wide, which was a mistake on my side. But Fernando was quick in that session and it would have been close between us.”
“Even the same [in the race] the first time, formation lap, lights, first corner. It sounds simple things for a race driver but after two years it’s going to feel like new for me. Pit stops under 2s, all these things I will have to live it for the very first time again.
“Even the out lap preparation is never the same as in testing when you can pace yourself and prepare by yourself. But in the chaos of qualifying with everyone trying to get space at the same time, I lived again today for first time in two years.
“I’m sure I’ll get better in preparing the tyres, positioning on the out lap, getting the maximum from the tyres which are very peaky. Need to learn how much you can push on those super performance laps the tyre is offering to you.”
Just as he had no preconceptions about qualifying, so Alonso isn’t focusing ahead of the race on what a good position would be.
“I need the information, I need to feel how the tyre degradation is going, how the balance changes. A lot of people around me on the grid have more knowledge of those things. I want to have those things in the pocket [after the race]. If that’s P7 or P11 OK. If it’s P15, OK; I just want that information by tomorrow night.”
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-the-hints-of-more-to-come-from-alonso-and-alpine/
AUTOSPORT
Alonso-8
Ocon-6
EDD STRAW’S 2021 BAHRAIN GP F1 DRIVER RATINGS + READER DEBATE
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
QUALIFYING
Despite still having to play himself in fully, Alonso made it into Q3 on his F1 comeback – something that wasn’t a foregone conclusion heading into qualifying.
The Alpine was a better proposition over a flying lap in the cooler evening conditions and although Alonso perhaps left a tenth or two on the table, with a wide moment out of Turn 13 costing him a little, it was a decent effort.
RACE
Alonso climbed to seventh early on and briefly got ahead of Ricciardo with an aggressive undercut at the first stops.
He lost ground when he crossed swords with Vettel, losing a place to Sainz, but having picked up debris he suffered from overheating brakes that first slowed him, then forced him to retire.
VERDICT: While not yet razor-sharp, he’s making fast progress and deserved a points finish on his comeback.
Started: 16th Finished: 13th
QUALIFYING
Superficially, elimination in Q1 while new team-mate Alonso reached Q3 was a disastrous start to Ocon’s season.
In fact, he looked potentially quicker heading into qualifying and would at least have reached Q2 easily but for losing around half-a-second to the yellow flag triggered by Sainz. That said, he did make an error on his first Q1 run, although this had little overall impact.
RACE
Ocon was always destined for an afternoon deep in the midfield with such a lowly starting position, but getting up to 12th in the first stint gave him hope.
He was unable to build on that, not helped by being vulnerable to undercuts around both his stops, and he was out of points contention even before being clobbered by Vettel and picking up damage.
VERDICT: Ocon was far better than circumstances allowed him to look and compared well to his new team-mate.
https://the-race.com/formula-1/edd-straws-2021-bahrain-gp-f1-driver-ratings-reader-debate/
First race of the season ✅.It was nice and special to feel the adrenaline of the start, first laps etc. enjoyed every moment until we had to stop the car unfortunately . Can’t wait for the next one and keep progressing 💪. @AlpineF1Team 💙#f1 #bahrain #alpine pic.twitter.com/X8zA6TY4kL
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 28, 2021
Fernando Alonso: We, and the world of F1 as a whole, were absolutely gutted when Alonso was forced to retire because watching him in his first race back was genuinely thrilling.
Like in qualifying, he had much better pace than Ocon and was well in the fight for points in the opening stages, looking as good as ever.
He did lose out in a three-way battle with Sainz and Vettel due to a lock-up before falling behind and being passed by Raikkonen, but this may well have been due to the brake issue that ended his race.
Either way, he was the better of the two Alpines all weekend, looked good throughout and, quite simply, it’s great to have him back. 7.5
Esteban Ocon: Of all of the 20 drivers on the grid, Ocon will be one of those keenest to forget his first race of the season.
He was beaten comfortably by Alonso in qualifying, and put that down to yellow flags, but again seemed miles off the Spaniard in the race before his team-mate retired.
He did begin to make some decent progress late on, but his hopes of scoring a point were brought to a halt by Vettel who locked up and hit the back of him. In that incident, Ocon was a blameless victim.
Like Giovinazzi though, if he wants to be considered a big talent, he can’t be outclassed by a veteran across the garage, even if that veteran is Alonso. 6
https://www.planetf1.com/features/2021-bahrain-grand-prix-driver-ratings/
Fernando Alonso (Qualified 9th, DNF) - 8
Alonso’s return to F1 ended prematurely but we saw glimpses of the Spaniard’s immense skill and talent in a mediocre Alpine car. Alonso made his way up to seventh in the early phase of the race but his progress was halted by a small deployment issue. A stray sandwich wrap got stuck in his brake ducts, which overheated his car in the process and forced him into an early exit.
Esteban Ocon (Qualified 16th, finished 13th) - 6
An underwhelming race for Ocon meant he only gained three places from his starting position. Had it not been for an incident with Vettel, the Frenchman could have been ahead of Giovinazzi, although Ocon never looked like he had the pace to threaten the top ten this weekend.
https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/974187/1/f1-driver-ratings-2021-bahrain-grand-prix
Fernando Alonso 7.5/10
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
There were no signs of rustiness for Alonso as he made his return to Formula 1. He surprised himself to qualify ninth and was running well to pick up some valuable points.
However, his race came to an end when the brakes on his Alpine overheated. It could be a long year for Alpine but at least they know Alonso will get the most from the car.
Esteban Ocon 5.5/10
Started: 16th Finished: 13th
Ocon never showed any glimpses of speed at the Bahrain International Circuit. Alongside Vettel, he was caught out by yellow flags in qualifying but it doesn't justify his race performance.
Part of his lack of pace can be put down to the car, however he was not a match for the returning Fernando Alonso. It's not the start to 2021 that Ocon needed.
ttps://racingnews365.com/f1-driver-ratings-bahrain-grand-prix-2021
Alonso: 8.5
It's a shame for Fernando Alonso that his comeback ended in the pit lane, but it was great to see the battling Spaniard back in Formula 1. He fought for every meter and made it with a limited car difficult for any opponent. That was in stark contrast to his teammate.
Ocon: 5.5
Esteban Ocon had some extenuating circumstances in qualifying, but when you get beaten like this by a man who has been out of Formula 1 for two years, you have to start thinking seriously...
AUTOSPORT
Alonso-8
Ocon-6
EDD STRAW’S 2021 BAHRAIN GP F1 DRIVER RATINGS + READER DEBATE
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
QUALIFYING
Despite still having to play himself in fully, Alonso made it into Q3 on his F1 comeback – something that wasn’t a foregone conclusion heading into qualifying.
The Alpine was a better proposition over a flying lap in the cooler evening conditions and although Alonso perhaps left a tenth or two on the table, with a wide moment out of Turn 13 costing him a little, it was a decent effort.
RACE
Alonso climbed to seventh early on and briefly got ahead of Ricciardo with an aggressive undercut at the first stops.
He lost ground when he crossed swords with Vettel, losing a place to Sainz, but having picked up debris he suffered from overheating brakes that first slowed him, then forced him to retire.
VERDICT: While not yet razor-sharp, he’s making fast progress and deserved a points finish on his comeback.
Started: 16th Finished: 13th
QUALIFYING
Superficially, elimination in Q1 while new team-mate Alonso reached Q3 was a disastrous start to Ocon’s season.
In fact, he looked potentially quicker heading into qualifying and would at least have reached Q2 easily but for losing around half-a-second to the yellow flag triggered by Sainz. That said, he did make an error on his first Q1 run, although this had little overall impact.
RACE
Ocon was always destined for an afternoon deep in the midfield with such a lowly starting position, but getting up to 12th in the first stint gave him hope.
He was unable to build on that, not helped by being vulnerable to undercuts around both his stops, and he was out of points contention even before being clobbered by Vettel and picking up damage.
VERDICT: Ocon was far better than circumstances allowed him to look and compared well to his new team-mate.
https://the-race.com/formula-1/edd-straws-2021-bahrain-gp-f1-driver-ratings-reader-debate/
First race of the season ✅.It was nice and special to feel the adrenaline of the start, first laps etc. enjoyed every moment until we had to stop the car unfortunately . Can’t wait for the next one and keep progressing 💪. @AlpineF1Team 💙#f1 #bahrain #alpine pic.twitter.com/X8zA6TY4kL
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 28, 2021
Fernando Alonso: We, and the world of F1 as a whole, were absolutely gutted when Alonso was forced to retire because watching him in his first race back was genuinely thrilling.
Like in qualifying, he had much better pace than Ocon and was well in the fight for points in the opening stages, looking as good as ever.
He did lose out in a three-way battle with Sainz and Vettel due to a lock-up before falling behind and being passed by Raikkonen, but this may well have been due to the brake issue that ended his race.
Either way, he was the better of the two Alpines all weekend, looked good throughout and, quite simply, it’s great to have him back. 7.5
Esteban Ocon: Of all of the 20 drivers on the grid, Ocon will be one of those keenest to forget his first race of the season.
He was beaten comfortably by Alonso in qualifying, and put that down to yellow flags, but again seemed miles off the Spaniard in the race before his team-mate retired.
He did begin to make some decent progress late on, but his hopes of scoring a point were brought to a halt by Vettel who locked up and hit the back of him. In that incident, Ocon was a blameless victim.
Like Giovinazzi though, if he wants to be considered a big talent, he can’t be outclassed by a veteran across the garage, even if that veteran is Alonso. 6
https://www.planetf1.com/features/2021-bahrain-grand-prix-driver-ratings/
Fernando Alonso (Qualified 9th, DNF) - 8
Alonso’s return to F1 ended prematurely but we saw glimpses of the Spaniard’s immense skill and talent in a mediocre Alpine car. Alonso made his way up to seventh in the early phase of the race but his progress was halted by a small deployment issue. A stray sandwich wrap got stuck in his brake ducts, which overheated his car in the process and forced him into an early exit.
Esteban Ocon (Qualified 16th, finished 13th) - 6
An underwhelming race for Ocon meant he only gained three places from his starting position. Had it not been for an incident with Vettel, the Frenchman could have been ahead of Giovinazzi, although Ocon never looked like he had the pace to threaten the top ten this weekend.
https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/974187/1/f1-driver-ratings-2021-bahrain-grand-prix
Fernando Alonso 7.5/10
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
There were no signs of rustiness for Alonso as he made his return to Formula 1. He surprised himself to qualify ninth and was running well to pick up some valuable points.
However, his race came to an end when the brakes on his Alpine overheated. It could be a long year for Alpine but at least they know Alonso will get the most from the car.
Esteban Ocon 5.5/10
Started: 16th Finished: 13th
Ocon never showed any glimpses of speed at the Bahrain International Circuit. Alongside Vettel, he was caught out by yellow flags in qualifying but it doesn't justify his race performance.
Part of his lack of pace can be put down to the car, however he was not a match for the returning Fernando Alonso. It's not the start to 2021 that Ocon needed.
ttps://racingnews365.com/f1-driver-ratings-bahrain-grand-prix-2021
Alonso: 8.5
It's a shame for Fernando Alonso that his comeback ended in the pit lane, but it was great to see the battling Spaniard back in Formula 1. He fought for every meter and made it with a limited car difficult for any opponent. That was in stark contrast to his teammate.
Ocon: 5.5
Esteban Ocon had some extenuating circumstances in qualifying, but when you get beaten like this by a man who has been out of Formula 1 for two years, you have to start thinking seriously...
2021-03-29
Alonso talento infinito, Ocon e Alpine rimandati
In Bahrain Alonso al suo rientro in F1 dopo due anni di assenza ha dimostrato ancora una volta tutto il suo talento. Nonchè tutta la voglia di lottare da parte di “Nando”. Il weekend dello spagnolo è stato molto positivo, e senza il problema tecnico sulla sua vettura, avrebbe conquistato dei punti. Ma se l’asturiano è in gran forma, l’Alpine ha sicuramente deluso in questa prima gara. Ocon non pervenuto.
Bentornato Fernando Alonso! La F1 ha davvero bisogno di piloti del calibro dello spagnolo. Piloti che sappiano ancora emozionare gli appassionati di questo sport. In Bahrain Alonso è tornato in grande stile, con un fine settimana davvero molto convincente. Chi aveva dei dubbi sul rientro del pilota di Oviedo dovrà rifare i conti, questo è poco ma sicuro.
Già nella giornata delle qualifiche del sabato “Nando” ha compiuto un mezzo miracolo, piazzando l’Alpine (lontana parente della Renault 2020) in Q3, conquistando la nona piazza.
Il team-mate Esteban Ocon eliminato già in Q1 fa capire quanto lo spagnolo riesce ancora a fare la differenza, nonostante un mezzo poco competitivo rispetto a tante altre monoposto.
Ed anche in gara lo spagnolo ha mostrato tutta la sua grinta, come se fosse un rookie e non uno con 40 primavere! Alonso già nel corso delle prime fasi del GP si è trovato a lottare come un leone, contro avversari con delle monoposto migliori della sua. Molto bello nella prima fase della corsa è stato il duello con l’Aston Martin di Vettel. Un po’ come accadeva quando lo spagnolo guidava la rossa, e Vettel la Red Bull.
Poi solo un problema tecnico sulla sua Alpine (brake by wire) ha costretto lo spagnolo ad alzare bandiera bianca nel corso del 32° giro. Altrimenti al suo rientro in F1, Alonso avrebbe sicuramente ottenuto una posizione in top-ten.
Questo sta a dimostrare che il pilota di Oviedo non ha perso di certo lo smacco dei tempi migliori, anzi. In Bahrain Alonso ha letteralmente “distrutto” il team-mate Ocon a parità di vettura!
Proprio l’Alpine alla sua prima in F1 ha evidenziato diversi limiti in termini di prestazioni ed affidabilità. Nulla a che vedere con quanto visto di buono la scorsa stagione, quando la scuderia si chiamava Renault.
Probabilmente l’Alpine nel fine settimana arabo ha dimostrato di essere l’ottava forza in campo, dietro anche all’Alfa Romeo. Meno male che in qualche modo Alonso è riuscito a guidare ben oltre i problemi della vettura.Ma oltre all’Alpine a deludere nel GP di ieri è stato Esteban Ocon.
Il pilota francese ha nettamente perso il confronto con lo spagnolo nel corso di tutto il weekend. Di certo il confronto interno con lo spagnolo per il francese sarà molto duro nel corso di tutta la stagione.
Il “Now we can fight“ di Melbourne 2018 è ancora il motto dello spagnolo, poichè Alonso a distanza di due anni è tornato più agguerrito che mai.
Purchè il team diretto da Davide Brivio riesca a dargli una monoposto più competitiva. Per il bene della F1 un pilota talentuoso come Alonso deve lottare per le posizioni di vertice. Ma la sensazione è quella che il 2021 sarà una stagione di purgatorio per la scuderia francese, nell’attesa di partire al top dal 2022.
Alberto Murador
https://www.f1sport.it/2021/03/f1-bahrain-alonso-talento-infinito-ocon-e-alpine-rimandati/
因为多位意大利人“老板”关系，Alpine在有些意大利媒体那得到莫名关爱。
但这文风对“Nando”真是宠溺到护犊啊，不要这样……
2021-03-29
Alonso talento infinito, Ocon e Alpine rimandati
In Bahrain Alonso al suo rientro in F1 dopo due anni di assenza ha dimostrato ancora una volta tutto il suo talento. Nonchè tutta la voglia di lottare da parte di “Nando”. Il weekend dello spagnolo è stato molto positivo, e senza il problema tecnico sulla sua vettura, avrebbe conquistato dei punti. Ma se l’asturiano è in gran forma, l’Alpine ha sicuramente deluso in questa prima gara. Ocon non pervenuto.
Bentornato Fernando Alonso! La F1 ha davvero bisogno di piloti del calibro dello spagnolo. Piloti che sappiano ancora emozionare gli appassionati di questo sport. In Bahrain Alonso è tornato in grande stile, con un fine settimana davvero molto convincente. Chi aveva dei dubbi sul rientro del pilota di Oviedo dovrà rifare i conti, questo è poco ma sicuro.
Già nella giornata delle qualifiche del sabato “Nando” ha compiuto un mezzo miracolo, piazzando l’Alpine (lontana parente della Renault 2020) in Q3, conquistando la nona piazza.
Il team-mate Esteban Ocon eliminato già in Q1 fa capire quanto lo spagnolo riesce ancora a fare la differenza, nonostante un mezzo poco competitivo rispetto a tante altre monoposto.
Ed anche in gara lo spagnolo ha mostrato tutta la sua grinta, come se fosse un rookie e non uno con 40 primavere! Alonso già nel corso delle prime fasi del GP si è trovato a lottare come un leone, contro avversari con delle monoposto migliori della sua. Molto bello nella prima fase della corsa è stato il duello con l’Aston Martin di Vettel. Un po’ come accadeva quando lo spagnolo guidava la rossa, e Vettel la Red Bull.
Poi solo un problema tecnico sulla sua Alpine (brake by wire) ha costretto lo spagnolo ad alzare bandiera bianca nel corso del 32° giro. Altrimenti al suo rientro in F1, Alonso avrebbe sicuramente ottenuto una posizione in top-ten.
Questo sta a dimostrare che il pilota di Oviedo non ha perso di certo lo smacco dei tempi migliori, anzi. In Bahrain Alonso ha letteralmente “distrutto” il team-mate Ocon a parità di vettura!
Proprio l’Alpine alla sua prima in F1 ha evidenziato diversi limiti in termini di prestazioni ed affidabilità. Nulla a che vedere con quanto visto di buono la scorsa stagione, quando la scuderia si chiamava Renault.
Probabilmente l’Alpine nel fine settimana arabo ha dimostrato di essere l’ottava forza in campo, dietro anche all’Alfa Romeo. Meno male che in qualche modo Alonso è riuscito a guidare ben oltre i problemi della vettura.Ma oltre all’Alpine a deludere nel GP di ieri è stato Esteban Ocon.
Il pilota francese ha nettamente perso il confronto con lo spagnolo nel corso di tutto il weekend. Di certo il confronto interno con lo spagnolo per il francese sarà molto duro nel corso di tutta la stagione.
Il “Now we can fight“ di Melbourne 2018 è ancora il motto dello spagnolo, poichè Alonso a distanza di due anni è tornato più agguerrito che mai.
Purchè il team diretto da Davide Brivio riesca a dargli una monoposto più competitiva. Per il bene della F1 un pilota talentuoso come Alonso deve lottare per le posizioni di vertice. Ma la sensazione è quella che il 2021 sarà una stagione di purgatorio per la scuderia francese, nell’attesa di partire al top dal 2022.
Alberto Murador
https://www.f1sport.it/2021/03/f1-bahrain-alonso-talento-infinito-ocon-e-alpine-rimandati/
因为多位意大利人“老板”关系，Alpine在有些意大利媒体那得到莫名关爱。
但这文风对“Nando”真是宠溺到护犊啊，不要这样……
Goin' up, goin' down in F1: Bahrain 2021 GP
MARCH 29TH 2021
The 2021 Bahrain GP went great for Lewis Hamilton, bad for some and even worse for others. In a new column, James Elson rates who and what is going up or down in F1
AUTHORJames Elson
The mood in F1 tends to change more frequently than a Ferrari technical reshuffle. One week you’re a hero, the next you’re slated and shuffled down in the Twitterati’s estimation.
In the vain hope of acting like some kind of grand prix barometer, we put together a list of who and what’s ‘Going Up’ or ‘Going Down’ in F1’s ever-pressurised atmospheric system.
GOING DOWN:Vettel scores 5 points on his Aston Martin debut!
Vettel seems to have carried those bad vibes from the red team to the green team: going down…
FREDERIC LE FLOC H / DPPI
Unfortunately, they were penalty points – his just reward for an absolute gesamtkunstwerk of a terrible F1 weekend – a virtuosic Vettel painted a true grand prix disasterpiece in Sakhir.
The German went in unprepared with little testing, fluffed his first qualifying run then got Mazepined on his second.
The Aston Martin man then had to start last due to ignoring yellows in qualifying (cue first penalty points), trundled round on C1s that might as well have been slabs of granite before sliding into T1 as if he was test driving the new DBX and rammed poor Esteban Ocon up the derrière, Seb ergo helping himself to two more penalty points.
At least things will get better from here, because they can’t get any worse.
The other flop: Ocon
Mildly cute doodle on visor proved only bright spot for Ocon on poor weekend
Grand Prix Photo
Ocon also had an all-encompassing shocker. With Pierre Gasly penning the antitheses of a love letter to Red Bull last week – and looking very handy in the AlphaTauri with it – Ocon needs a strong season to fend off the new French poster boy of grand prix racing if he wants to keep his seat at Alpine.
Ocon responded by qualifying 17th, wasn’t very fast once he got going in the race and then got taken out by an equally beleaguered Vettel, the Aston Martin driver clunking the Frenchman and sending both spinning off like underperforming Robot Wars entries.
Alpine’s ménage à trois management structure
Alpine’s management structure seems virtually non-existent
Alpine
Enstone has a car that looks like a slow teapot (from its more flattering angles), but is this the team’s greatest concern? Fernando did his usual trick of dragging the A521 to places it shouldn’t be, however the poor thing soon started burning up on re-entry in the hands of the Spaniard – the rear brakes catching fire as they inhaled a sandwich bag into T1 halfway through the race.
How will they sort the car’s issues out? Luckily there’s a really well-defined, clear management structure to sort things out. Not. Every question the trio of Alpine bigwigs get asked, whether it’s Davide Brivio, Marcin Budkowski or Luca De Meo, seems to be met with the same answer: “It was someone else’s decision.” If they can’t decide how to answer questions, how are they going to make a stove-top kettle on wheels go faster?!
They need a leader. They need strength. Wisdom. A calm, guiding hand. They need Cyril Abiteboul!
Mercedes’ pit crew
Bottas’ pit stop got fluffed – again
Netflix
Valtteri Bottas was left wondering if he needed to invest in a mobile sauna as, just a few months on from the last Bahrain blunder for his pit crew, they did it again.
A sticking right-front dashed all hopes of the undercut on Verstappen, leaving Bottas in the vast tundra of grand prix no-man’s-land in third.
Lawrence Stroll’s ‘Green Racing Point’
The red arrow wouldn’t show up on a dark background. It’s there, OK? Trust us
Aston Martin
After the most overblown F1 entry ever (sorry BAR), the Aston Martin PR train has now fallen flat on its face. Otmar Szafnauer couldn’t have sounded more indignant if he tried, as he complained time and again that the new aero rules had been designed to foil his beautiful low-rake cars. Aston Martin didn’t spend all this money copying the best car on the grid and painting everything green just to find themselves mired with the riff-raff down in the lower echelons of the midfield!
This all comes after a car presentation that was so long and packed with content, yet somehow pointless, and was presented of course by a billionaire owner whose performance was so wooden it was positively teaky.
Haas VF-21
Haas’ VR-21 decides one corner is quite enough, thank you very much
DPPI
The VF-21 is slow. Really slow. So slow in fact, it’s almost literally going backwards. Turns out the new Haas dislikes going forwards so much that it tries to pitch itself into the wall in protest every time you accelerate, as so artfully demonstrated by both Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher.
One can only pray for the Haas hospitality unit once Guenther Steiner comes in for his post-race espresso.
Michael Masi and the white-painted track limits
Michael Masi contemplates telling everyone where to stick their track limits
Grand Prix Photo
Only F1 could whip up a storm about something so utterly banal. Lewis Hamilton went fully across the painted white line ad-nauseum during the race and didn’t get penalised. Max Verstappen does it in his overtake for the lead and was told to give the place back.
Cue uproar! ‘They could do that in practice and quali’! every person and their Twitter bot said.
Despite desperate clarifications by Michael Masi and the FIA that you could cross the line as much as you wanted, as long as you didn’t do it when overtaking, i.e. therefore giving yourself a ‘lasting advantage’, F1 twitter gasbags such as yours truly still delighted in the ambiguity – we can talk about it forever! And ever! Going round in more circles than the Daytona 500 on repeat.
What made this all the more absurd was that the drivers didn’t actually kick up that much of a fuss about it, but we still all persevered in talking about something that is only marginally less interesting than watching paint dry: dry paint.
F1 face masks that won’t stay up
One thing that’s not going up, is that face mask
McLaren
Why, in a sport that’s the supposed world pinnacle of technology, can teams not manufacture a face mask that stays on a driver’s face for longer than 0.7sec? WHY?!?!
Goin’ upTurning it off and on again
Perez showed a ‘Midas Touch’ to launch a Red Bull reboot
Florent Gooden / DPPI
Doesn’t matter whether it’s your Nan’s telly, or arguably the most technologically advanced F1 car of all time, the RB16 – sometimes the old tech tricks are the best.
So Sergio Perez found when his Red Bull died on the formation lap. Luckily, Checo had the presence of mind to do the old ‘CTRL-ALT-DLT’ and turn it back on again, setting up a barnstorming race to fifth.
Mercedes’ Twitter admin
There is nothing – NOTHING – better than one F1 team’s Twitter admin recycling another’s PR garbage in a game of petty one-upmanship. OK, there are maybe a few things, but just look at this tweet.
AMG GIVES YOU WINGS. 😘 pic.twitter.com/7TvpZENb4L
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 28, 2021
Pedro De La Rosa’s lap record
All worship King Pedro
Pedro De La Rosa. Is. Speed. The Spanish F1 veteran delighted in the fact that however fast the new generation of grand prix cars are, however committed Hamilton and Verstappen might be, no one has yet claimed his Bahrain race lap record of 1min 31.447sec, set in a McLaren MP4-20 in 2005. Long may it last, Pedro.
Yuki Tsunoda’s flag
Yuki’s banner of love
Yuki Tsunoda
Did the 21st century start in the year 2000 or 2001? It’s the question no-one was asking, but may apparently stymie the oft-quoted quote about F1’s new darling being the firstborn this century.
What really gave him the power to “send it like a rookie” past Alonso though, as he so articulately put it himself? His fan-made flag, of course. Japanese F1 fans: they make the best stuff.
Lando Norris’ GG
Norris showed why he’s so highly thought of at McLaren in Bahrain
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images
Landon Norris was no doubt a bit miffed that Daniel Ricciardo qualified ahead of him on the latter’s McLaren debut.
Norris took revenge by proceeding to smash the ‘Honey Badger’ out the park like an Aussie rules football, finishing over a 20sec ahead in fourth with his team-mate down in seventh.
As he said at the end of the grand prix: “Are those fireworks for me?” GG (online computer gamer parlance for ‘Good Game’.)
Hour-long FP1 and FP2
Reduced practice time equals increased entertainment
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images
So many cars on track, so little space! The result? SO good!
James Vowles’ Lewis Hamilton pit strategy
Vowles and Hamilton did it again at Sakhir
Florent Gooden / DPPI
Wow.
Active aerodynamics / current regs
Well-judged DRS zones provided some top-notch racing
Clive Mason - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Say it again: The DRS zones actually worked. Not in the usual bullet train overtaking an Austin Marina display, but as a facilitator for good, hard racing. Pat Symonds said we might get more aero-trickery from 2025. A good thing perhaps?
Also, can we just delay the 2022 regs change a bit more please? The racing is close, and we like it.
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-mercedes-won-with-a-red-bull-style-gamble/
Goin' up, goin' down in F1: Bahrain 2021 GP
MARCH 29TH 2021
The 2021 Bahrain GP went great for Lewis Hamilton, bad for some and even worse for others. In a new column, James Elson rates who and what is going up or down in F1
AUTHORJames Elson
The mood in F1 tends to change more frequently than a Ferrari technical reshuffle. One week you’re a hero, the next you’re slated and shuffled down in the Twitterati’s estimation.
In the vain hope of acting like some kind of grand prix barometer, we put together a list of who and what’s ‘Going Up’ or ‘Going Down’ in F1’s ever-pressurised atmospheric system.
GOING DOWN:Vettel scores 5 points on his Aston Martin debut!
Vettel seems to have carried those bad vibes from the red team to the green team: going down…
FREDERIC LE FLOC H / DPPI
Unfortunately, they were penalty points – his just reward for an absolute gesamtkunstwerk of a terrible F1 weekend – a virtuosic Vettel painted a true grand prix disasterpiece in Sakhir.
The German went in unprepared with little testing, fluffed his first qualifying run then got Mazepined on his second.
The Aston Martin man then had to start last due to ignoring yellows in qualifying (cue first penalty points), trundled round on C1s that might as well have been slabs of granite before sliding into T1 as if he was test driving the new DBX and rammed poor Esteban Ocon up the derrière, Seb ergo helping himself to two more penalty points.
At least things will get better from here, because they can’t get any worse.
The other flop: Ocon
Mildly cute doodle on visor proved only bright spot for Ocon on poor weekend
Grand Prix Photo
Ocon also had an all-encompassing shocker. With Pierre Gasly penning the antitheses of a love letter to Red Bull last week – and looking very handy in the AlphaTauri with it – Ocon needs a strong season to fend off the new French poster boy of grand prix racing if he wants to keep his seat at Alpine.
Ocon responded by qualifying 17th, wasn’t very fast once he got going in the race and then got taken out by an equally beleaguered Vettel, the Aston Martin driver clunking the Frenchman and sending both spinning off like underperforming Robot Wars entries.
Alpine’s ménage à trois management structure
Alpine’s management structure seems virtually non-existent
Alpine
Enstone has a car that looks like a slow teapot (from its more flattering angles), but is this the team’s greatest concern? Fernando did his usual trick of dragging the A521 to places it shouldn’t be, however the poor thing soon started burning up on re-entry in the hands of the Spaniard – the rear brakes catching fire as they inhaled a sandwich bag into T1 halfway through the race.
How will they sort the car’s issues out? Luckily there’s a really well-defined, clear management structure to sort things out. Not. Every question the trio of Alpine bigwigs get asked, whether it’s Davide Brivio, Marcin Budkowski or Luca De Meo, seems to be met with the same answer: “It was someone else’s decision.” If they can’t decide how to answer questions, how are they going to make a stove-top kettle on wheels go faster?!
They need a leader. They need strength. Wisdom. A calm, guiding hand. They need Cyril Abiteboul!
Mercedes’ pit crew
Bottas’ pit stop got fluffed – again
Netflix
Valtteri Bottas was left wondering if he needed to invest in a mobile sauna as, just a few months on from the last Bahrain blunder for his pit crew, they did it again.
A sticking right-front dashed all hopes of the undercut on Verstappen, leaving Bottas in the vast tundra of grand prix no-man’s-land in third.
Lawrence Stroll’s ‘Green Racing Point’
The red arrow wouldn’t show up on a dark background. It’s there, OK? Trust us
Aston Martin
After the most overblown F1 entry ever (sorry BAR), the Aston Martin PR train has now fallen flat on its face. Otmar Szafnauer couldn’t have sounded more indignant if he tried, as he complained time and again that the new aero rules had been designed to foil his beautiful low-rake cars. Aston Martin didn’t spend all this money copying the best car on the grid and painting everything green just to find themselves mired with the riff-raff down in the lower echelons of the midfield!
This all comes after a car presentation that was so long and packed with content, yet somehow pointless, and was presented of course by a billionaire owner whose performance was so wooden it was positively teaky.
Haas VF-21
Haas’ VR-21 decides one corner is quite enough, thank you very much
DPPI
The VF-21 is slow. Really slow. So slow in fact, it’s almost literally going backwards. Turns out the new Haas dislikes going forwards so much that it tries to pitch itself into the wall in protest every time you accelerate, as so artfully demonstrated by both Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher.
One can only pray for the Haas hospitality unit once Guenther Steiner comes in for his post-race espresso.
Michael Masi and the white-painted track limits
Michael Masi contemplates telling everyone where to stick their track limits
Grand Prix Photo
Only F1 could whip up a storm about something so utterly banal. Lewis Hamilton went fully across the painted white line ad-nauseum during the race and didn’t get penalised. Max Verstappen does it in his overtake for the lead and was told to give the place back.
Cue uproar! ‘They could do that in practice and quali’! every person and their Twitter bot said.
Despite desperate clarifications by Michael Masi and the FIA that you could cross the line as much as you wanted, as long as you didn’t do it when overtaking, i.e. therefore giving yourself a ‘lasting advantage’, F1 twitter gasbags such as yours truly still delighted in the ambiguity – we can talk about it forever! And ever! Going round in more circles than the Daytona 500 on repeat.
What made this all the more absurd was that the drivers didn’t actually kick up that much of a fuss about it, but we still all persevered in talking about something that is only marginally less interesting than watching paint dry: dry paint.
F1 face masks that won’t stay up
One thing that’s not going up, is that face mask
McLaren
Why, in a sport that’s the supposed world pinnacle of technology, can teams not manufacture a face mask that stays on a driver’s face for longer than 0.7sec? WHY?!?!
Goin’ upTurning it off and on again
Perez showed a ‘Midas Touch’ to launch a Red Bull reboot
Florent Gooden / DPPI
Doesn’t matter whether it’s your Nan’s telly, or arguably the most technologically advanced F1 car of all time, the RB16 – sometimes the old tech tricks are the best.
So Sergio Perez found when his Red Bull died on the formation lap. Luckily, Checo had the presence of mind to do the old ‘CTRL-ALT-DLT’ and turn it back on again, setting up a barnstorming race to fifth.
Mercedes’ Twitter admin
There is nothing – NOTHING – better than one F1 team’s Twitter admin recycling another’s PR garbage in a game of petty one-upmanship. OK, there are maybe a few things, but just look at this tweet.
AMG GIVES YOU WINGS. 😘 pic.twitter.com/7TvpZENb4L
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 28, 2021
Pedro De La Rosa’s lap record
All worship King Pedro
Pedro De La Rosa. Is. Speed. The Spanish F1 veteran delighted in the fact that however fast the new generation of grand prix cars are, however committed Hamilton and Verstappen might be, no one has yet claimed his Bahrain race lap record of 1min 31.447sec, set in a McLaren MP4-20 in 2005. Long may it last, Pedro.
Yuki Tsunoda’s flag
Yuki’s banner of love
Yuki Tsunoda
Did the 21st century start in the year 2000 or 2001? It’s the question no-one was asking, but may apparently stymie the oft-quoted quote about F1’s new darling being the firstborn this century.
What really gave him the power to “send it like a rookie” past Alonso though, as he so articulately put it himself? His fan-made flag, of course. Japanese F1 fans: they make the best stuff.
Lando Norris’ GG
Norris showed why he’s so highly thought of at McLaren in Bahrain
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images
Landon Norris was no doubt a bit miffed that Daniel Ricciardo qualified ahead of him on the latter’s McLaren debut.
Norris took revenge by proceeding to smash the ‘Honey Badger’ out the park like an Aussie rules football, finishing over a 20sec ahead in fourth with his team-mate down in seventh.
As he said at the end of the grand prix: “Are those fireworks for me?” GG (online computer gamer parlance for ‘Good Game’.)
Hour-long FP1 and FP2
Reduced practice time equals increased entertainment
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images
So many cars on track, so little space! The result? SO good!
James Vowles’ Lewis Hamilton pit strategy
Vowles and Hamilton did it again at Sakhir
Florent Gooden / DPPI
Wow.
Active aerodynamics / current regs
Well-judged DRS zones provided some top-notch racing
Clive Mason - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Say it again: The DRS zones actually worked. Not in the usual bullet train overtaking an Austin Marina display, but as a facilitator for good, hard racing. Pat Symonds said we might get more aero-trickery from 2025. A good thing perhaps?
Also, can we just delay the 2022 regs change a bit more please? The racing is close, and we like it.
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-mercedes-won-with-a-red-bull-style-gamble/
