Alpine concludes Bahrain testing with productive final day

Fernando Alonso ran for the entire final day of testing with BWT Alpine F1 Team, completing 122 laps and finishing the day with a best time of 1:32.69, set on the C4 compound, placing him third position overall. 

Alonso had a smooth day of testing and was able to test several tyre compounds and set-ups. The Spaniard focused his energy on preparing for the first Grand Prix next week, as the position of competing teams remains largely uncertain.

“It was a good day of testing for us building on Esteban’s strong work yesterday. We’ve learnt a lot with the car and completed many laps, so I’m pretty happy. We are all still learning about the new cars and set-ups. We’ve tried several things with some clear results, and that’s what you want from testing. It was very productive.

“We don’t know what the others are doing, what programme they are following and how much fuel they have, and we need to wait until next Saturday to know. We’ll focus on ourselves and our plan is to arrive into next week with 100% effort.”

Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was pleased to have made up for lost running time in Barcelona, with both Alonso and Esteban Ocon completing a large number of laps for the team in Bahrain. As a result, the team have been able to make considerable progress. 

“Today marked the conclusion of pre-season testing and we were able to complete a significant amount of work in preparation for next week’s opening Grand Prix for the 2022 Formula 1 season. The last two days have been equally good for Esteban and Fernando with a century of laps for both of them, which has allowed us to finalise our preparations well. It’s also meant we’ve been able to compensate for the loss of track time on the final day in Barcelona. We focused a little more on refining set-up and improving many of the finer details. Lots of laps means lots of learning and we’ve progressed the car significantly this week.”

Szafnauer said that the team looks to continue development during the week to prepare for the season-opener. 

“We look forward to making further improvements in the coming days to continue our preparation in the best possible manner. Next week, we race for real and that’s an exciting time for everyone involved at BWT Alpine F1 Team and for the fans who have waited over the winter for the 2022 season to commence.”