Alonso not focused on battle with Red Bull and Ferrari: 'Looking backwards'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Fernando Alonso's season is certainly not going the way the Spaniard had hoped beforehand. With one Grand Prix left before the summer break starts, the Aston Martin driver is 'only' ninth in the championship. The conclusion after the first part of the season? Aston Martin is middling and Alonso is not expecting miracles in the Belgian Grand Prix either.
Alonso - who will start from P8 - realises that he is not going to play a role in the battle for the podium spots at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. "[I'm] not looking at the cars in front of us, but I think we will have to see behind us," the two-time champion said when asked by GPblog. "It's going to be a challenging race in terms of tyre degradation. There will be some nice battles for sure."
Alpine and Williams Aston Martin's competitors
Aston Martin had hopes of competing for at least the podium spots before this season. That has not proved to be the case (yet). Not Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari, but another team is currently a major competitor. "I think we have the Alpines very fast this weekend. We have Albon as well, very fast. I think that will be our battle. They are a little bit quicker on the straights. We have a little bit more downforce in the car. Maybe we take better care of the tyres. So hopefully that comes to us at the end of the race."
In any case, it seems good news for Alonso that the package of updates has not missed its mark. "Yes, we've been experimenting with the setup yesterday as well. So yeah, the new upgrades are a little bit more optimised," Alonso is cautiously satisfied.