Alonso: Little joy in sprint race fights against much quicker cars – RaceFans
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: “No…….
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.”
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2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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