The BWT Alpine F1 Team looks ahead to the sixth race weekend of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the Spanish Grand Prix. Drivers Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso and team principal Otmar Szafnauer share their thoughts on the sixth race of the season in Barcelona.
The Spanish Grand Prix starts on Sunday at the Circuit de Catalunya and is also the home race of the two-time F1 world champion, Fernando Alonso.
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“I raced in Barcelona for many years, so I know the track and the place well.” Alonso told via the Alpine F1 website. It’s a track that really shows where your car stands among the rest of the field and it’s the home for winter testing for a number of years. The track is not easy to overtake and so you have to qualify well. Unless there’s a Safety Car or something unusual in the race, it’s hard to gain ground. We’ve qualified pretty well this year, so hopefully we can continue the race from last Saturday’s form to Barcelona and have a smooth race.”
Otmar Szafnauer: “Firstly, the aim is to have both cars within the points, which we have yet to achieve since the first race of the season. If we want to achieve our goals for this year, this is the minimum requirement for the remaining Grands Prix. We have consistently shown that we have a competitive car and it is now important that we convert that promising pace into points on Sundays. We certainly aim to come back from Miami by having a much better, and cleaner, race weekend. We only have control over what lies ahead, so that’s the goal in Barcelona and both drivers are ready to deliver.”
Esteban Ocon: “Barcelona is one of those circuits that all the teams and all the drivers know very well. We’ve been racing and testing it for a while now, but of course it comes with its own challenges, just like any track. The first two sectors are fast and can be tricky, with tire management being very important. The last sector is low speed and you normally feel a loss of grip at the end of the lap if the tires overheat. In general, it’s quite difficult to overtake in Barcelona, although the long straight downhill can give power and DRS advantage, so that’s an important part of the track. It makes qualifying and race strategy particularly important to gain a track position. Last year I qualified fifth on the grid, so it’s a track that I can enjoy, and we know we can be competitive there.”