Alonso returned to Formula One with Alpine team but failed to complete the Bahrain race
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At Bahrain GP, all eyes were on Fernando Alonso’s second return to Formula One. After spending two years of racing in other motorsport series, Alonso secured ninth place in qualifying. A top-10 finish in his return debut was a possibility until his race ended abruptly after 32 laps. Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski revealed that Alonso’s F1 return was ruined by a sandwich wrapper. “After the second stop, a sandwich wrap paper got stuck inside the rear brake duct of Fernando’s car,” said Budkowski.
In a honest assessment of the Bahrain GP, Alonso said he has to improve a lot. “I was not at my 100 per cent. It was nice, we had some good battles. Some of them were happy endings, some of them were not because we had been overtaken but I need to find more pace from myself, find more confidence,” said Alonso.
First race of the season ✅.
It was nice and special to feel the adrenaline of the start, first laps etc. enjoyed every moment until we had to stop the car unfortunately . Can’t wait for the next one and keep progressing ?. @AlpineF1Team ?#f1 #bahrain #alpine pic.twitter.com/X8zA6TY4kL— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 28, 2021
“I need to extract more from the car, from the brakes, execute the start better. It was not too bad but I think there is a lot of room to improve from my side,” he added. “Even the pit stops, I think the guys did an amazing job but my position for the second pit stop was not right.”
Alonso is hopeful of improving his performance in the coming races. “These are small things and small mistakes that I keep doing from testing and in this first race. Hopefully, by race two, race three I can perform better personally.”
