Fresh F1

Fernando Alonso’s ex teammates are convinced that the Spanish pilot will offer an immediate answer to the challenge that his companion in McLaren raised in the GP of Australia. Lewis Hamilton was in front of his teammate for many laps . The British rookie is expected to have a much harder time at the next race, on the 8 of April at the Malaysian circuit of Sepang.

Mike Gascoyne, technical director of Spyker worked with Alonso in Renault. He commented that Hamilton “was impressive in Australia, knew how to handle the pressure and went very well”, but he anticipated that “Fernando is not going away.” ”What happened is going to serve as an incentive to Alonso on and I think Lewis is going to have a hard season from now on.”

Pat Symonds’ self-esteem speech

Renault’s director of engineering , Pat Symonds, is convinced that the world champion felt annoying by not being able to clearly settle down his superiority over Hamilton in Australia. “A lot of Fernando’s strength of character comes from his self-esteem. And the only times that I saw him feel really badly during the years I worked with him was on the days when he got beaten by his teammate.”

“Alonso is readily able to accept being defeated by another car or another driver, but it is much more difficult to him when that happens in front of a teammate”, he added. Symonds considers Fernando very intelligent and thinks that, although the Spanish finished in Australia in front of Hamilton, he will take a deeper look at the picture. “Of course, he will bounce back, but I’m sure he has found the situation a little bit different from what he anticipated.”

Bell: “Lewis is bloody fast”

Renault’s technical director, Bob Bell, believes the experience of Fernando Alonso will begin to show as the pressure increases on the pilots in the course of the season. “If McLaren lets them run under exactly equal conditions, then Lewis will give Fernando a good run for his money,” Bell said. One will notice the inexperience of Hamilton under pressure, when he has a problem with the car or when the tires do not work properly “, explained Bell. “In those situations”, Bell indicated, “Fernando has the capacity and the experience to know what he must do and I am sure that he will come out on top, but in the absence of problems Lewis is bloody fast”.

Source: Marca (in Spanish)

~ by Wiz Kid on March 26, 2007.