Fernando Alonso offers overtaking solution for future Spanish GPs

Alonso, Alpine, SpanishGP — Photo: © LAT Images

Formula 1

Alonso offers overtaking solution for future Spanish GPs

Alosno finished his home race 17th

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Tuesday 11 May 2021 14:33

Fernando Alonso has called for an extension to the DRS zones at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya in a bid to increase on-track action in future races.

Alonso slipped from 10th to 17th at his home grand prix after a late second pit-stop to swap from his highly-worn set of medium tyres that had seen his pace drop dramatically as he was swamped by his midfield rivals.

Turn 10 at the circuit was reprofiled ahead of this season's event and despite Alonso insisting overtaking chances were not hampered by the change, he called for a DRS extension to improve the racing.

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After suggesting there would be little change to racing at turn 10 ahead of the weekend, Alonso said: "I think my feelings were confirmed.

"It didn't change the overtaking opportunities much. It is a similar corner in that aspect.

"It is more fun to drive because it is faster and you can carry more speed into the corner so that was positive but in terms of overtaking it was not a game-changer.

"To improve? Maybe a bit extra DRS so right after the last chicane, maybe being able to open it straight away is a possibility for the future? I don't know. Barcelona will always be difficult for overtaking."

Alpine's improved performance at Portugal a week prior to the Spanish GP was confirmed by a double-Q3 appearance in Barcelona, although both cars dropped positions during the race.

"I think we had some good answers on some of the performance of the car and performance of the competitors," added Alonso. "I was more or less comfortable.

"I think we have more pace in qualifying than the race, to be honest. The race was even tighter than in qualifying because things were very similar on the performance of the other cars.

"We did a good start. We were the best or second-best in Portimão and in Barcelona it was also good.

"We are putting things together very slowly, step by step and the most important thing now is to get more performance out of the car on my side.

"I think we identified the areas we can exploit more performance so we are working on that and this week is going to be intense with some hard work."