Fernando Alonso returned to Formula 1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix after a two-year hiatus from the sport. The two-time world champion put together a decent performance with his new team, Alpine, but feels that there's more to do.
According to Alonso, there was a lot left on the table in terms of pace, and there are multiple areas where he can improve in the upcoming races.
Speaking about his performance in the race, Alonso said:
"It was nice, I had a couple of good battles and some of those had happy endings, some of them were not as we were being overtaken. But I need to find more pace from myself and find more confidence and I need to extract more from the car, the brakes, and execute the start better. It was not too bad but there is a lot of room to improve from my side."
We are building momentum for 2022: Fernando Alonso
Speaking about his return to the sport, Fernando Alonso said that he hoped everyone enjoyed his comeback as much as he did. The Spaniard was also confident that Alpine would make performance-based improvements in the upcoming races. Alpine are currently at the bottom of the midfield teams after taking no points at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Speaking about Alpine's prospects this season, Fernando Alonso said:
"I think we always said from the beginning that this is very interesting and Alpine is in F1 for big things. Maybe 2021 is a continuation of 2020 and we are building the momentum and something more important heading into 2022."
Fernando Alonso also wasn't sure of the pecking order after the Bahrain Grand Prix. The two-time world champion felt Alpine could have suffered from a track-specific lack of performance. He believes the team will need to wait a few more races before getting a more complete picture.
When questioned about the pecking order, Fernando Alonso said:
"It is difficult to say. I think we saw different results and a bit of mixed feeling for everybody including us. Sometimes we look better sometimes we look a little bit down. We will need a couple of races to have a more established order so let's wait and see."
Alpine looks to have taken a backward step since last year. Last season at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team (branded Renault) had both cars in the points places. This year, though, Alpine was one of four teams to take no points over the weekend.
Fernando Alonso has consistently maintained that he would return to the sport only if he had a competitive car. So far, Alpine have not delivered on their end of the promise. This raises the question of whether Fernando Alonso will respect his contract with the team, or will he leave a struggling Formula 1 team once again?