Fernando Alonso has teased that there is more to come from Alpine this season, following impressive showings during the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix. The Enstone-based team saw both cars progress through to Q3 during qualifying in Jeddah before Alonso and teammate Esteban Ocon fought it out inside the points on race day. Ultimately, Alonso's race would end with a reliability problem on Lap 36 of 50 while Ocon would finish in a strong sixth place. The Jeddah result came following a weekend in Bahrain that saw the Alpine cars finish in seventh and ninth. But Alonso is confident that there is progress to be made with their new car – progress that could lift them further up the order.
Alpine learning every time they run their car
Alpine head into the upcoming Australian GP weekend fourth in the Constructors' Championship standings, leading the midfield pack. The team are four points ahead of the much-improved Haas squad, and are already building a points buffer between themselves and McLaren. "I think there's still a long way to go with the car," explained Alonso, speaking to select members of the media, including RacingNews365.com . "We keep learning every time we go out. I think there's still more potential."
Alonso: A team can jump forward in one race
The midfield battle in 2022 could hinge on which teams find the best upgrades over the course of the season, a challenge made all that more difficult by the cost cap of $140 million dollars for the year. Alpine, amongst others, will have to choose their upgrades carefully and sparingly. Alonso continued: "As we've said many times, the progress under development is going to be huge for everybody, so that could change a couple of the performance from the teams – like McLaren now, maybe from one race to another they can jump a couple of positions. "We need to be on top of that and we need to, hopefully, out-develop some of the competitors."
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