The Spaniard proved the progress his team has made by emerging from qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix in third position as Red Bull’s closest rival.
And while the characteristics of his AMR24 car, which seems better in terms of single-lap pace than long runs, mean he doesn’t expect to retain his place in the Shanghai race, he says it is a situation that he and the team cannot live with too much. unhappy.
“I’m expecting a tough race,” he said. “We are slower than the Ferraris, slower than the McLarens and probably the Mercedes. We often overqualify them and during the race we just have to wait to see when they arrive, how fast they arrive and how many laps we can defend those positions.
“It’s happened so far in the first four races, so I guess this fifth race won’t be any different. So yeah, I’m expecting a race that’s going to be tough for us.
“But we can’t apologize for being too fast in qualifying, so let’s take it.”
Alonso had been third for most of the Shanghai sprint, holding off the attacking Ferraris until the final stages.
This opened the prospect of an intense battle to keep Red Bull’s most consistent challenger in the race.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said he was bracing for quite a tough time for the Maranello team as he recovered from a difficult qualifying, as he finished seventh on the grid, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Asked about the chances of aiming for the front, Sainz said: “I think we need to focus on more than the Red Bull and just see how, in terms of race pace, we can beat the two McLarens and the Aston.
“They showed better pace over one lap this weekend, but over the full race distance I hope we have our chances. The problem is that there are three cars to overtake.
“Normally in a race, like if you look at me at Suzuka, to overtake Lando I had to extend two stints to get a car. To overtake three cars you really have to show good race pace, so it will be tricky , because you wear out the tires a lot trying to overtake one car, so you have to overtake another… So let’s see.
“My feeling is that we can come back, but we have to show a much better rhythm than that [the sprint].”
The Spaniard proved the progress his team has made by emerging from qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix in third position as Red Bull’s closest rival.
And while the characteristics of his AMR24 car, which seems better in terms of single-lap pace than long runs, mean he doesn’t expect to retain his place in the Shanghai race, he says it is a situation that he and the team cannot live with too much. unhappy.
“I’m expecting a tough race,” he said. “We are slower than the Ferraris, slower than the McLarens and probably the Mercedes. We often overqualify them and during the race we just have to wait to see when they arrive, how fast they arrive and how many laps we can defend those positions.
“It’s happened so far in the first four races, so I guess this fifth race won’t be any different. So yeah, I’m expecting a race that’s going to be tough for us.
“But we can’t apologize for being too fast in qualifying, so let’s take it.”
Alonso had been third for most of the Shanghai sprint, holding off the attacking Ferraris until the final stages.
This opened the prospect of an intense battle to keep Red Bull’s most consistent challenger in the race.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said he was bracing for quite a tough time for the Maranello team as he recovered from a difficult qualifying, as he finished seventh on the grid, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Asked about the chances of aiming for the front, Sainz said: “I think we need to focus on more than the Red Bull and just see how, in terms of race pace, we can beat the two McLarens and the Aston.
“They showed better pace over one lap this weekend, but over the full race distance I hope we have our chances. The problem is that there are three cars to overtake.
“Normally in a race, like if you look at me at Suzuka, to overtake Lando I had to extend two stints to get a car. To overtake three cars you really have to show good race pace, so it will be tricky , because you wear out the tires a lot trying to overtake one car, so you have to overtake another… So let’s see.
“My feeling is that we can come back, but we have to show a much better rhythm than that [the sprint].”
