Fernando Alonso believes he could have scored as many as 30 points during the opening four races of the 2022 season – but instead, he only counts two. The two-time World Champion will feel he has already been dealt a year's worth of misfortune in just a handful of race weekends. After scoring two points at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso was forced to retire in Jeddah before falling foul of a badly-timed Safety Car in Australia. And during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, a crash with Mick Schumacher at the start left him fighting on with a damaged car until the decision was made to retire.
Alonso rues dropped points after difficult start
Looking back on the weekend, Alonso said: "It was another unfortunate race for us this season. "We made a decent start and moved up to eighth but there was a lot of damage on the right side of my floor, and on the sidepod, so we had no choice but to retire. "It's unlucky as a small brush with Mick, which wasn't intentional, destroyed our car and race. "After Australia, I feel that I could have scored 20 or 30 points in the championship, and I have only two. It's unlucky! "It's a long season and there are plenty of points still to score."
Alpine keen to use Imola as motivation
It also proved to be a difficult weekend for Esteban Ocon as Alpine finished with both cars outside the points for the first time this season. "We must make sure this does not happen again this year as we have much stronger potential than that," said Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi. "As a team, there are many areas we must improve, and we must also eradicate errors quickly if we are to achieve our ambitious goals. "While we feel frustrated by the result, we will count on it as additional motivation to not have this feeling again during the year."
Most read
