In fact, as long as Alonso returns full-time with Renault in 2021 and will line up on the grid for the opening of the season in Australia, he will not have spent more than 18 months without driving an F1, despite his nearly three years. gap year.
Alonso tested McLaren’s 2019 car after that year’s Bahrain Grand Prix to give his opinion, and has already been busy getting acquainted with Renault this year, testing his 2020 car on the day of filming.
Since Alonso achieved his last attempt to achieve the triple crown of motorsport in the Indianapolis 500 in May, his return to F1 has been his only goal. The two-time world champion has already visited Renault’s base in Enstone and has made some racing simulators. available for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola as a component of its assimilation in the team.
But one of the unexpected maximum elements of Alonso’s arrangements is the scale of his tests. Its launch in the Renault F1 2020 car in Barcelona has been limited to only 21 laps due to the test restrictions of existing spec machines, even as there are no regulations. As for the number of personal cars over two years, the 2018 Renault is the last car you can model freely.
It’s something Alonso’s been completely worth. Earlier this month, Renault organized a checkpoint in Bahrain for its academy drivers, Guanyu Zhou, Christian Lundgaard and Oscar Piastri, who have not yet finished two days of racing for Alonso. another two days on the RS18 F1.
But how useful is it to check the 2018 car for an experienced driving force like Alonso, who actually knows everything there is to know now and would actually adapt quickly?
Fernando Alonso, Renault F1 Team R. S. 18
Photo by: Renault Sport
By 2021, many will have been replaced at Renault. The team will not only run under another call when called Alpine, but has also grown considerably. The opportunities that arise. For an engine whose race has been marked by missteps and poorly synchronized decisions, Alonso’s return coincides perfectly with Renault’s recovery.
The car also made significant improvements, making the 2018 style slightly representative of Renault’s current situation. To put it in context, the 2020 car qualifying time for the Russian Grand Prix is more than a faster moment than in 2018, which once in the day ago shows the step forward taken at that time. Assuming that even greater progress is made through the gains of the unit of strength and the minor aerodynamic progression allowed by 2021, then the benchmark will be even greater when Alonso returns.
However, there are vital elements in the existing check that make the disparity between the 2018 Renault and the imaginable Alpine 2021 irrelevant. Alonso’s check run was never about getting a concept representative of next year’s car functionality, but to help him get started once. he nevertheless sits in the new car next year.
First, there are the physical benefits of driving an F1 with anger: before his control in Bahrain, Alonso had finished more than a day of control of the big prize machines since his last start with McLaren in 2018.
Although he did not take much time off, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship for Toyota on LMP1, twice entering the Indy 500 and competing there once, and making his debut at the Dakar Rally, his painting will take time. get used to the unique physical demands of driving an F1.
Alonso said in his announcement for 2021 that the effects of his physical fitness tests were greater than ever; However, he later admitted, after driving the 2020 Renault F1, that he had things to do to adjust to the constraints imposed through the Array that he admitted to being “exceeding”. me for now. “
“You have to be fit, exercise by F1 standards,” Alonso added. “The neck and upper body will want to strengthen. “
Four days of testing in the 2018 car will have helped Alonso get in shape and get back to the right pace, but they will also have helped him with probably minor but amazing things, such as the position of his seat and the placement of the buttons the guide wheel.
When a pilot joins a team, he spends the first component of his check running on those things and seeing how they move from the simulator. However, with only 3 days of pre-season scheduled for 2021, there will be few opportunities to solve problems and for new drivers to become fully familiar with cars. By setting everything up Alonso-style in the 2018 car, you can move seamlessly next year-style for your first run on court in Bahrain.
“It sounds simple, but the more we practice those things, the less we have to do the winter tests,” explains Marcin Budkowski, general manager of Renault F1. “We only have 3 days of racing for our two drivers in the winter trials next year, so through the practice of FIA procedures, all the other things you’ll want to your credit, which may be just different from the ones that have happened before, and also get used to the team.
“The car is different, it’s our 2018 car. We’ve come a long way since 18, but it’s the same DNA as a car. Car 20 is a bigger car, but in the end it’s used to a Renault car, even if it’s a two-year-old car, it’s beneficial. “
The last thing is that Alonso has the opportunity to integrate further into the Renault team. Although there are still familiar faces at Enstone in their last two periods, the vast majority of the team will not have worked with Alonso before. Joining the team for race weekends gives Alonso the chance to meet his racing team for next year, breaking the ice very early.
Alonso’s enthusiasm for getting to work with the Renault team, even months before he had to show his hunger and concentration, and why even trying a two-year-old car will be very important when the lights go out in Australia.
Fernando Alonso, Renault F1 Team R. S. 18
Photo by: Renault Sport
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