Fernando Alonso says 'age and experience is always a help' going into 2022 F1 Canadian GP

Fernando Alonso has been in scintillating form in the last few races and his results in Baku and Monaco are a testament to that. Having said that, no one would have expected the veteran Spaniard to drag the Alpine to the front row of the starting grid at the 2022 F1 Canadian GP.

Fernando Alonso appeared to have the hang of the wet conditions in FP3 as well, finishing the session in P1. The Alpine driver carried that form forward in qualifying, however, and secured a front-row finish over the Mercedes and Ferrari challengers, taking everyone by surprise. When questioned by the press if there was something different he had done to the car, the Spaniard said:

“This weekend, I don’t know... the car was good straight away. We didn’t make huge setup changes, we didn’t experiment too much because the car felt good from the first laps in FP1 so that was a help to build the confidence. It’s also a circuit that I think you need some rhythm into it. You use a lot of curb riding here and it’s quite bumpy.”

The 40-year-old claimed that it was his experience around the track that made the difference, saying:

“There are a few things that, you know, are there for many, many years. And I guess for half of the grid it’s either the first time they come here or the second time because after the pandemic it was not many races hosted here in Canada. So I don’t know, I’ve been racing here 16 or 17 years so as I always said, age and experience is always a help, it’s never a downside.”

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Front row start does not mean much: Fernando Alonso

The 2022 F1 Canadian GP will mark the first front-row start for Fernando Alonso since the 2012 F1 German GP pole from his Ferrari days. While securing a start at the front of the pack, that too a decade later, might hold significance for a driver, the Spaniard thinks otherwise.

Fernando Alonso claimed this front-row start to have 'not much' importance for his race and his career as a whole, saying:

“The front row importance? Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t mean much. I know what I’m capable of. Sometimes I do a better job, sometimes not so good and I try to improve. I’ve been working a lot in the last two years but yeah, I mean, it feels good, but it doesn’t mean anything. The race is tomorrow so we need to do a good race tomorrow.”

Alonso will be starting the main race alongside reigning world champion Max Verstappen. While a start up front is an advantage, it would be interesting to see what results he can derive from this.