Fernando Alonso optimistic about updates in F2012 for 2012 Spanish Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso is optimistic that the updates made in F2012 will provide help in reducing the gap to the front in 2012 Spanish Grand Prix which is to be held at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on May 13.
The Spaniard set the best time of 1 minute and 24.430 seconds in the first free Friday practice session of Spanish GP.
However, his pace dropped off significantly in FP2 and he came 14th on the timesheets in the afternoon most probably because he was testing the car for longer race configuration.
Nonetheless, he said that they are feeling encouraged after seeing the performance of the car with the first step of upgrades during FP1 and they are hoping to see improvements in the race ahead.
“Yesterday we said that we tried to recover some of the gap with the first step here in Barcelona and I'm confident that we did the job,” he said. “The updates that we introduced today, the first numbers and first signs are positive. We need to look in more
detail but everything looks as we suspected. But for sure it's not as some of the expectations that we read last week.”
Nonetheless, he said that it will be too soon to make any kind of predictions about the car’s pace as they still need to wait until the qualifying. Moreover, he said that he is focusing to perform well in the qualifying so as to make his way through into
Q3.
“Still too early, I think we need to wait until tomorrow, especially qualifying how tough it is to go through to Q3,” he said.
The two-time world champion is presently standing at fifth place in the drivers’ championship with 43 points and is ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. On the other hand, the Scarlet team is at fourth position in the constructors’ rankings with 45 points.
Over and above, they have managed to perform reasonably well in the season until now after struggling throughout the pre-season testing programme. Besides, they are striving to make the essential developments and the significant preparations for the approaching
races to improve their position in this year’s championship.
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