Fernando Alonso has suggested young drivers are “not well prepared” for the heat during Sunday’s French Grand Prix.
The high temperatures were a talking point all weekend at Paul Ricard with the thermometer reaching well over 30C on race day and track temperatures sitting in the mid 50’s centigrade.
While that meant tyre management was a prominent feature during the GP, Alonso, Formula 1’s oldest driver, also thinks the hot weather also had an impact on some of his younger rivals.
“Not at all,” the Spaniard, who turns 41 on Friday, said on if he had had any issues with the heat.
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“And that’s probably why I’m in P6. I was faster at the beginning and also at the end.
“The young drivers are not well prepared.”
Much of Fernando’s race was also on defence as he gained several places at the start before eventually engaging in “chess” with former teammate Lando Norris
“I’m very happy. It was the best we could do,” Alonso said of his result. “The start was super, from seventh to fifth. Then, good race pace and good tyre management.
“A comfortable sixth. That’s the way it is. I wish we had a lot of normal weekends because we would have finished fifth or sixth every Sunday.”
?? Merci #FrenchGP! ?? Double points finish at home!
Fernando ? P6
Esteban ? P8 pic.twitter.com/hPYek6P19v— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) July 24, 2022
With Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon also getting ahead of Daniel Ricciardo into P8, it was a good day for the French team on home turf in their battle for ‘best of the rest’.
“The truth is we have that fight with McLaren in the Constructors’ World Championship, which is nice. We wanted to finish ahead of them,” added Alonso.
“It looked like they were very fast on single-lap pace, they were half a second ahead of us. But in the race, we were able to keep ahead of them and I’m happy about that.
“The start was crucial probably, to get ahead of Lando. I wish I could have challenged the Mercedes and Red Bulls in front of us but that was not our league.”