Fernando Alonso: “Taking into account what we lose on the straights, it means we probably could have been a second per lap faster than the Mercedes”

Fernando Alonso was exhibited in wet and mixed conditions in qualifying and race of the Brazilian F1 GPalthough he was finally left without a prize, achieving 12th place, out of the points, in a race in which the lack of power of his Honda engine once again hindered him on the straights, especially when the track dried out, before the final rain.

With a car with which Fernando had been 18th in Free Practice 3 in the dry, the Asturian was able to stand out with his great pace when the track was most delicate.At first, with little grip and with intermediate wheels that were going to wear out on a track that was drying out.

In that complicated context, Fernando lapped very fast, even catching up with the Ferrarisovertaking hamilton with a great pass on the outside, and hugging Leclerc. In his first stint with soft rubber, even with the track a little wet, he shone again, but when the asphalt dried, he returned to his harsh reality, with a car with very little top speed on the straight due to its poor engine. Slingalthough he was able to attack Albon and defend against Gasly due to the good performance of the chassis Adrian Newey in the curves.

And with the final rain, Fernando Alonso finished the race putting pressure on the current world champion, Kimi Antonelli, but could not overtake him due to lack of power on the straight.

Therefore, after the race, Fernando Alonso He highlighted how fast he could have gone in this Sunday’s race if he had an engine that pushed the same as the rest. He even said that he had to pilot “with different tools” to the others, in clear reference to an engine that makes him start at a great disadvantage. In fact, the lack of power of the Honda engine caused him to lose more than a second in the acceleration zones of Interlagos in the Free Practice and only 4 tenths in full acceleration in the last sector.

“In the rain it was better, without a doubt, better than in the dry. But, in general, I think the pace was quite good and it was a pleasant surprise. The car behaved well throughout the race,” Fernando commented as he got out of the car.

“Obviously, we still have a lot of lack of speed on the straight and that is difficult to compensate. But we were fighting with the Ferraris at the beginning and even with the Mercedes at the end,” he said.

“Given what we lose on the straights, that means that probably today, we could have been a second a lap faster than them (Mercedes). So the car was phenomenal in the corners. “It was a nice feeling,” he commented on the official F1 television, making it clear that driving like this, with so little top speed, is not fun.

“I don’t enjoy it. I just come and do my job, but it’s not fun to ride with… different tools (to the rest). “We have to work hard for next year, to close the gap and be more in a competitive environment,” he said.

“In general, I think the race was better than the rest of the weekend. In free practice we were not too happy with the car, but in the race it was a little more in a good operating window. So we will see what we can do in the next race,” he told the written press. And when asked if they could learn anything from Interlagos to improve in the last three rounds, he was blunt: “There is nothing to learn about the car. We are in race 21, so we know exactly what we need to improve.”