Fernando Alonso Receives Royal Welcome in Barcelona ahead of F1 Race: Can He Build on Past Success?

Fernando Alonso (6./2.)

It was in Spain that Alonso claimed his last victory in Formula 1. It happened ten years ago, then in the colors of Ferrari. Will he be able to build on his success in the Aston Martin team?

“They told me that 67% of the team kit in the stands is green. We are thus returning to the years 2005-2006, when the walkways were also monochrome. I feel the support of the fans, that special energy. They are amazing. When I’m on the track, I can’t hear them, but I feel them, I feel their enthusiasm. I hope I can put on a good show for them.

Car upgrades work, sure. It never happened to us that a new component wouldn’t help. It has been valid since Bahrain. I’m satisfied. We’ll see how we fare when everyone goes full speed.

It’s very tight here, one or two tenths really means a lot and will move you to completely different positions in the classification. That’s why I don’t pay so much attention to the times themselves.

We fulfilled the program that we set before training. It’s good, we understood the tires. The track is a bit slower than we anticipated. We expect it to accelerate even more. We also need to fine-tune the settings,” revealed Alonso.

Lance Stroll (15./18.)

The Canadian competitor was in a completely different mood than Alonso after training. The car didn’t listen to him like he imagined.

“We focused on testing various new components and getting to know the new Pirelli tire prototype. It kept us busy. We have a lot of data to analyze over the course of today. Hopefully we can improve before qualifying, because the car is not exactly where I would like it to be.

The starting field is extremely even here. We know how important it is to find a few tenths to improve, and we are doing our best to really improve,” promises Stroll.