Fernando Alonso was buoyed by Renault’s strong showing on his final day of winter testing action at Jerez and says the team is ready to hit the ground running in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Alonso set the pace on Monday by a whisker from Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello – a much better relative performance than Renault managed in Barcelona last week.
Although the Circuit de Catalunya is usually a better barometer of a car’s potential, the hotter conditions at Jerez this week – with track temperature topping 35C on Monday – are more representative of what is expected in the opening flyaway races.
With most of winter testing having been cool and often wet, Alonso reckons this week’s experience may give his team an advantage over major rivals like Ferrari, BMW and Toyota, who wrapped up their testing programmes last week.
“I’m happy with the day as we did more than a 100 laps which was our target for my final day of winter testing,” he said.
“This has been the first time we have run on a really hot track and the information we have from today will be very useful for the first few races, which are usually very hot.
“I’m also a bit sad that this is the final test of the year with my test team, but I will see them at the factory soon.
“I have to say thanks for the amazing job they have done this winter because we are really well prepared for the new season.
“We can go to Australia knowing that we have maximised the time we had available.”
Renault’s chief test engineer Christian Silk is equally confident and thanked Alonso for his yeoman work over the winter.
“We had a good day with lots of work to get through and we ran to programme pretty much all day,” he said.
“The conditions were good for testing today as it was hot which leaves us well prepared for Melbourne and overall we we’re happy with the results that we’ve got.
“I just want to say a big thanks to Fernando for the excellent job he has had done in winter.
“He’s such a good test driver and has worked hard all winter to leave us well prepared for the start of the season.”

 

I have a hunch that Alonso will be great, consistent driver to have on your fantasy F1 teams this year.

 

Benz and Ferrari try to lower expectations, so naturally renault will claim their car is great...