David Sanchez de Castro
Madrid
Sunday, December 1, 2024, 8:10 p.m.
Finishing seventh in a race in which he aspired to be tenth at most is a more than acceptable haul for Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard admitted to being happy after a “good weekend, with a good time and a good race.” Of course, without forgetting that he knew how to fish in a very rough race. “We have taken advantage of what happened: penalties, punctures, Checo’s abandonment… We have earned good points,” he noted.
Still, they have a serious data correlation problem. «We improved the pace a little, but we have to see the first laps of the race and the starts, and we can’t find it. We have lost two positions in the starts. Without the safety cars or the problems at the end it would have hurt us if we had finished tenth. “We have some disparity between what the car thinks it is doing at that moment, a problem between the power unit and the brakes,” he publicly requested.
In an event in which the stewards were the protagonists, Alonso recalled that “you always have to be less than five seconds from the car in front in case of a penalty, and more than 5 seconds from those behind in case you are penalized.” ». «This race was more interesting than the sprint. We have had safety cars, punctures… We have to be ready and prowling to get points like we did today,” concluded the Spaniard.
Sainz: «Luck has not smiled on us»
He started sixth and finished in the same position, but Carlos Sainz left Qatar with the feeling of a lost opportunity. And all because of how the race went after the puncture that left him with no options to climb to the top. «We have lost a lot of time in the puncture. We were in a good position to get good points. We had a puncture at the end of a lap, losing a lot of time and causing damage to the car… And when I came out to fix it, the safety car came out and everyone took advantage of it. That’s how things are, sometimes it happens. Luck has not smiled on us,” he said.
Beyond that, it cannot be said that it is a bad weekend for Ferrari, because they cut points from McLaren. «I always say that we have to wait until Sundays to judge the weekend, nobody thought that we were going to cut points. In the end it didn’t turn out so bad for us. We could have finished fifth, I tried everything and with everything that has happened, I started sixth, we had a puncture and I finished sixth. “It’s not that bad,” admitted the Madrid native.
Sainz is going to Abu Dhabi, which will be his last race with Ferrari, with still options to render one last service to the Scuderia, which is playing for the constructors’ championship. There are 21 points that separate him from McLaren, since Charles Leclerc is also playing for runner-up status. Here he might be a little more lazy to help you.
