Fernando Alonso: “At least, we are in the fight. There are two long straights, but, apart from that, the rest has less to do with the engine and it seems that it costs us a little less”

On the track, yes Fernando Alonso you shake his hand, he will grab your arm. It’s like that. He always tries to maximize his potential, without mistakes to try to take advantage of the mistakes of others and gain some more position. And he did it again in the F1 United States GP, where his Aston Martin AMR26 He performed better than in comparison to Singapore, something that allowed him to get into Q2 and gain a few more places at the start due to the sanctions of up to three drivers to start 12th.

On this track, his car was superior to Cadillac and Williams. His fight was against haas and everything was going to be very tight. And he went for it. He won the position Ocon in Q1 to get into Q2 with the 16th best time. And in Q2, he gained another position by not making a mistake that the other Haas did, the one from bearmanwho saw his time eliminated for exceeding track limits. That gave a position to Fernandowhich was 15th.

Then, the penalties for changes of engine elements to Bortoleto, Lindblad and Colapintothey moved him to 12th place on the grid, that is, just two positions away from the points (top-10). Yes indeed, Fernando He is aware that due to the pure pace of his car, he should be in 15th or 16th place and that other faster cars will arrive behind him, like the three sanctioned drivers already mentioned.

But he also remembered another key point: the good degradation that his car usually has and that could allow him to opt for a different strategy in search of difficult points for which he will also need other drivers in front to make some mistakes.

The normal thing is that, with his Aston Martin and the Honda engine, with little power on the straight, he would leave without points. Fernando does not rule it out. “Anything can happen“, he expressed before the microphone of the official F1 television. But whether he scores or not, the most important thing for the two-time champion is to be able to get back into the fight for those points.

“Without a doubt it has gone a little better than in some weekends. Here we have differentiated ourselves a little more from the Cadillac and the Williams. I think this year we have gone to Q2 three times and this is one of them. So, yes, we have been a little more competitive. We will take advantage of some penalties for tomorrow (on the grid). Maybe we will start from 13th or 14th (finally, 12th) and see what we can do to finish in the points at the end,” commented the Spaniard.

“Obviously, anything can happen when you’re close to that tenth position, but we still need some help from the cars ahead,” he said about the race.

“With the penalties, we know that some fast cars will start from the back, but they will pose a threat during the race. So, yeah, at least we’re in the fight. And when you’re in the fight, you enjoy the race a little more,” he said at the end of Q2.

Later, before the written media, as reported by ‘Motorsport.com’, Fernando reflected on his options for scoring.

“Let’s see, obviously I think that, on our own merits, we are in 15th or 16th, so you know that tomorrow there will be some fast cars coming from behind that will pose a threat, so we have to pay attention to that and see what performance we have. Sometimes on Sundays we perform better than on Saturdays, that’s true, and let’s hope that this Sunday is one of those days,” he commented.

“I think the layout has been a positive surprise, the level of competitiveness here. There are two long straights, but, apart from that, I think the rest has less to do with the power unit and it seems to cost us a little less,” he said of the improvement in his car’s performance in Austin compared to what was seen in Singapore.