26 August 2022

BWT Alpine F1 Team returned to racing after Formula 1’s summer shutdown under mixed conditions at Spa-Francorchamps for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

 


Fernando Alonso ended the day in seventh place on the timesheets with Esteban Ocon sixteenth after a day of mixed conditions at the 7.004km circuit located in the Ardennes Forest with intermittent rain falling throughout the day.

 

Both drivers ran with small upgrades on the A522 including updates to the rear brake ducts and floor fences.

 

In Free Practice 1, Esteban’s session was cut short with a driveshaft issue, which was changed for Free Practice 2.
Both drivers ran a productive second session with rain curtailing any useful running in the final 10 minutes as Fernando concluded his day in seventh with a lap time of 1min 46.975secs and Esteban sixteenth on a 1min 47.944secs.

 

Esteban Ocon: “It’s great to be in the car again after the summer break and it’s always a nice feeling to drive this classic track. As far as our Friday was concerned, it was not a straightforward day. We had a driveshaft issue early in Free Practice 1, so we missed most of the session and Free Practice 2 was disrupted with the weather so we couldn’t really execute a smooth programme. All in all, we definitely have work to do but we have gathered enough data today to analyse and improve for tomorrow. There’s more to come from us.”

 

Fernando Alonso: “Firstly, it’s good to be back! Driving Formula 1 cars in Spa-Francorchamps always gives you adrenaline, so it was a fun Friday. The circuit changes are not too different to before, just with the safer run-off areas. We didn’t have stable weather conditions to test the tyres, so we still have a couple of things to assess tomorrow in Free Practice 3. The car feels quite good to drive here, so hopefully we should be in for another competitive weekend.”

 

Pat Fry, Chief Technical Officer: “Both of today’s sessions have been affected by the weather, which made it difficult for everyone across the field to get through their programmes. As far as we can tell in these conditions, our upgrades are performing as expected and our times look promising. In the morning Esteban had an issue, which we investigated and fully understand, and it should not affect us for the rest of the weekend. We are also taking a complete Power Unit change on Esteban’s car, as a number of other teams are: the length of the track and its configuration minimises the impact. With little rain predicted for the rest of the weekend we can look forward to a cleaner Saturday and Sunday.”