Fernando Alonso was just following instructions of the team as both he and Esteban Ocon were not too pleased with the F1 Hungarian GP outcome.
For the Alpine team, they have developed a nose for consistency over the last number of races and Hungary was no exception. An excellent qualifying session saw them both start from the top six on race day. But their good luck ended there. A risky idea insofar as adopting a one stop strategy for both Ocon and Alonso.
As it transpired more points but only ending in eighth and ninth. This left the drivers wondering if the pit stops change was the right move. Both on mediums; they lost to Lewis Hamilton at the start and subsequently to both Red Bulls. They then switched to a one-stop strategy putting on hard tyres.
A risky decision which probably did cost a higher placing for both as the tyres didn’t work as expected. Alonso was not too pleased at the start itself when he thought Ocon nearlly put him on the wall, and post-race he noted he was just following orders of the team.
“I was just following whatever instructions the team was giving to me and fall a little bit behind Ocon and try to breathe with the tyres,” said Alonso. “We wanted to make one stop work, we wanted to save the tyre a little bit and at the end we managed. All in all, I think the result, compared to McLaren, that we equal points I think it was a good afternoon”.
“But obviously we started fifth and sixth and we had some expectations to have a nice result today, but we were not quick enough during the race. I think the hard tyre, we were struggling to switch on the tyres as well, so it was a tricky balance in the car. I think it was quite a good month for us”.
“The last four races we introduced a lot of new parts on the car, that made us a little bit more competitive, and I think we just need to keep on scoring points with both cars like today. Hopefully that is our strength compared to McLaren for the constructors,” summed up Alonso, who announced a move to Aston Martin post the weekend.
Overall, he was happy but with a could have done better perhaps attitude but more points gained for the Spaniard and his team sees Alpine now best of the rest in fourth in the Constructors race. Likewise, teammate Ocon was not so happy too.
“Yeah [it’s nice to finish the race with points], but not completely satisfied with that race,” said Ocon. “I think we had unfortunately more pace than that and probably the strategy we chose was not necessarily the best one overall in the race. All the calls were not really the perfect ones I would say like we usually do”.
“It probably would have been another story but together as a team we learn, we improve and that’s going to be a useful one for the future, but it’s good to score points with both cars and keep track with McLaren which is the important one but yeah, we didn’t manage to get them [on Sunday] so we need to push hard after the summer break. We need to do everything perfect. We need to leave nothing on the table,” summed up Ocon.
One of the most consistent teams on the grid so far, they are improving race by race and their target for the rest of the campaign is to keep McLaren and the rest at bay. Also in the summer break, they have the headache of solving their driver line-up for 2023.
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