11 September 2022

BWT Alpine F1 Team left without reward from today’s Italian Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon finished eleventh and Fernando Alonso retired from today’s race in Monza.

 

 

Fernando retired on lap 31 with a suspected water pressure issue while running inside the points. The team remains in fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship heading into the flyaway part of the season, which begins in Singapore in three weeks’ time.

 

 

Esteban Ocon, started P14, finished P11: “It was a tricky race today and obviously it’s disappointing to finish just one position away from the points in the end. The car was performing well, and we had good race pace, which we weren’t able to show with traffic ahead. We’ll refocus and maximise everything for the remaining races from Singapore and onwards. I’m looking forward to a little break to recover from the triple header and fully prepare for the flyaway races where we’ll look to get both cars back into the points in our fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.”

 


Fernando Alonso, started P6, DNF: “It was a challenging race today and we seemed to be finding it difficult to keep up with the cars ahead of us on the straights. We then had to retire the car with a suspected water pressure issue, but we still need to investigate why this happened. We were fighting inside the top ten and I was hoping we could see the chequered flag inside the points, but it wasn’t the case today. It’s been a long three weeks; the team has worked very hard and deserves a short break. The good news is that we are still ahead in the fight with McLaren for fourth, so we go to Singapore with the aim to be in the top ten again.”

 


Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal: “We’re certainly disappointed not to have scored points at today’s Italian Grand Prix with Esteban narrowly missing out in eleventh and Fernando retiring from the race while in a competitive position. It looks like we lost water pressure on his car, which meant he had to stop, and we’ll do our normal investigations to find out the cause and the solution for the future. On Esteban’s side, he put himself into a strong position during his second stint – lapping one-second a lap quicker than those ahead - and would have been in contention for points before the final Safety Car at the end. It’s a pity the race did not end under a green flag, and I’m sure we can find better ways to improve the spectacle of racing in these kinds of scenarios. As a team, we should reflect on the positives and, if we look across the triple header, we’ve come away with 26 points, which is a good effort and very valuable for the championship. We’ll come back stronger for Singapore at the end of the month where we have further upgrades coming to the car.”