There were some who seemed more inclined to count it as Alonso’s 33rd F1 win rather than Ocon’s first, yet there was Esteban – without a hint of this-is-meant-to-be-my-day sourness – playing along in recognising Fernando’s role in his success. Ocon was the winner at the end of one of those long and dramatic F1 days, but it was Alonso who received most of the praise for holding up Hamilton’s recovering Mercedes – the old warrior wrestling with the big bad wolf and delaying it for just long enough for his team-mate to escape to victory. Yet barring a spectacular collapse in the second half of this season, only Lewis Hamilton (2007) and Jenson Button (2015/16) will have emerged from their time alongside Alonso with their reputations more enhanced, or less damaged, than Ocon.Įven as he has entered his fifth decade, Alonso’s peaks have been higher than Ocon’s and only he, perhaps, could have magicked a podium out of nowhere in Qatar last year and qualified an Alpine on the front row in Canada this season.īut those feats say far more about Alonso and his ability to stop the clock than Ocon who, through a combination of pace, intelligence and maturity, has still found a way to make life at Alpine work for him.įor an indication of Alonso’s overpowering presence and his gravitational pull within a team, you only need to refer to the post-race reaction in Hungary last year.
F1 2020 BRAZIL SETUP PROFESSIONAL
The ongoing debate over whether Esteban Ocon can be relied upon to lead the team into next year and beyond is yet another example of his body of work over the last couple of seasons going criminally undervalued.Īlonso’s tendency to torture his team-mates over the years – rubbing their faces into the dirt and tearing them limb from limb, stripping away layers of professional pride, dignity and self-worth – has made the job of being his team-mate among the hardest in F1.
F1 2020 BRAZIL SETUP DRIVER
Viewed from that perspective, maybe this will prove to be a moment of enlightenment for Alpine, shaking them into finally taking F1 with the seriousness of a team – like Aston Martin and McLaren, almost certain to be Piastri’s destination – determined to reach the front.Īlonso and Piastri will leave a gaping hole, no doubt, but Alpine can count themselves fortunate they have a third exceptionally gifted driver and one who remains completely committed to the cause.
F1 2020 BRAZIL SETUP DRIVERS
What is it about the current incarnation of this once proud team that leaves drivers – stretching back to Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to abandon a long-term project with Renault after a single season – cold? “Was it something we said?” they might be asking themselves, still aghast, within the walls of Enstone. With two drivers at the opposite end of their careers in agreement Alpine is not the place to be, theirs is the kind of double whammy, total rejection that could shame a board into questioning – for better or worse – their commitment to Formula 1. That, though, is the scarcely believable situation in which Alpine found themselves at the start of this month, stunned by Fernando Alonso’s move to Aston Martin before being pied by Oscar Piastri, who intimated he would not be occupying the seat the team had already announced was his for 2023. To lose two in less than 48 hours looks like carelessness. On the other end of the straight, Grandstand M will put you on top of the first corner and the Senna S, the best spot to watch overtakes on the track.To lose one prodigiously talented racing driver may be regarded as misfortune. Where is the best place to watch?īecause of the bowl-like nature of the track, a place in Grandstand A on the banked entry to the start-finish straight will give you a double whammy of views, allowing you to see the cars winding through the infield section and then passing underneath you. True, it doesn’t look like there’ll be a local driver to cheer on any time soon, but that won’t stop the party at Interlagos. Why go?Ī carnival atmosphere really does dominate in Brazil, and watching Formula 1 cars alongside the locals is something every F1 fan should experience. After wiggling through the Senna S and down to Turn 4, the drivers then go through a snaking in-field section with some challenging camber changes, before slinging back up the hill and through the banked final turn. Like many pre-World War II tracks, Interlagos features banked corners, with the drivers beginning their lap on a sort of half oval – in fact, between 1957 and the track’s return to the F1 calendar in 1990, Interlagos could be run as a giant oval.
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