Alonso fears Barcelona and Monaco woe if he fails to solve qualifying issues

Fernando Alonso fears he will struggle in the next two F1 races if he fails to improve in adapting to changing conditions in qualifying.

Alonso, who returned to the sport with Alpine this season after two years away, has scored points in the last two races but appreciates he could have done better in Portugal had he not made mistakes in qualifying.

The 39-year-old knows he needs to be on top of his game for the next two races, in Barcelona and Monaco, due to the limited overtaking opportunities at each circuit.

With “plenty of homework” to follow up on from the weekend in Portimão, Alonso said: “I need to get better and more comfortable with the car, especially in qualifying.

“We had a good car [in Portugal] and I didn’t perform on Saturday. If that happened in Barcelona or Monaco my weekend is very compromised.

“I cannot afford that and I will try to be more prepared next time because the race is a bit harder to overtake than in Portimão.”

After qualifying an impressive ninth on his F1 return in Bahrain, Alonso then narrowly made it through Q1 at Imola to line up 15th, while he only managed 13th in Portimão.

Despite undertaking significant preparation for his return, Alonso revealed he is still rusty in quickly dealing with changes in track conditions, such as in Portimão given the variation in wind speed and direction.

“It’s not [about] extracting the maximum from the one-lap tyre because in FP2 or FP3 you put the soft and you do one lap,” added Alonso. “The timed lap performance was there, it’s more about the changeable conditions in quali.

“If there is less grip or more grip, if it is windier, whatever changes on track, I need to be ready and understand it quickly on the out lap. I don’t have time to do more laps so they are things that I need to speed up.”

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