Fernando Alonso once again invites you to dream big. And with more reasons and more good feelings than in the first race in Bahrain, in which he was third starting fifth. Now in Saudi Arabia, where he achieved second position on the starting grid after third place in qualifying, the Spaniard is one step closer to the long-awaited 33rd victory. Although he is ruled out.
These were the reactions of Fernando Alonso in the interview at the foot of the track and later at the Dazn TV microphone.
“It’s been a very good weekend for us, qualifying was our weakness in Bahrain, and today the car performed very well for one lap. We’ll see what we can do in the race. It’s amazing to be out on the front row of the grid. We have confidence in the race pace. The car is strong, the race is our strong point. Tomorrow we should go better than today, so we are hopeful.”
“Our race is behind us. If something happens at the top we will try to take advantage of that opportunity. I don’t think I have any chance of beating Checo. I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but if we see his pace we have to be honest: my goal is not to fight for the victory with Checo… but F1 is not mathematics or an exact science. Sometimes things like today happen with Verstappen.”
“We will try to be in the top five and collect points for the Constructors’ Championship, that is our goal as a team.”
“I expect a very close race that will be decided by small details such as the start, tire wear, pit-stop strategy and luck. We have to be on top of these factors. We are ready to face everything in our hands “.
“I think Max will arrive at some point in the race, we have already seen him start last and win or finish second (in Russia 2021, from 20th to 2nd; in Belgium 2022, from 14th to 1st ) and tomorrow there is no doubt that he will reach the podium at least, this is not our objective. In pure race pace they are in another league. Our fight is with Mercedes, with Ferrari, with Alpine”.
“You have to keep your feet on the ground and not make mistakes. We can’t let these good weekends slip away, they are good points, we’ll take those that are available tomorrow”.