Alpine’s Fernando Alonso has admitted that he believes that ‘anything can happen’ in Baku as F1 heads to Azerbaijan’s capital this weekend.
Having endured a difficult Monaco Grand Prix as he finished 13th, Alonso is looking to bounce back in Baku at a track where he feels that he will be more able to overtake than in Spain and Monaco.
Alonso though is expecting Baku to throw up plenty of drama throughout the field as it has done in each of F1’s last three visits, of which Alonso scored points on his last two trips in 2017 and 18 for McLaren after starting outside of the top ten.
Speaking on his expectations for Baku, the two-time champion said: “I’ve qualified outside the top ten in my past two races here but gone on to finish inside the points. It shows anything can happen in what is usually a very unpredictable weekend.”
Alonso will also be hoping that his Alpine is back on form after struggling to find ‘performance’ in Monaco, but is confident that progress can be made, commenting: “We have a lot of data to look back on and see if we can identify areas of improvement ahead of Baku.”
Esteban Ocon meanwhile is on a four race points-scoring streak which is his best consecutive top ten finishes record since joining Alpine last season, as well as his best F1 hot streak since a 12 race run in 2017 for Force India.
Ocon therefore is keen to keep his run going yet feels that there are areas still to be improved with the Frenchman ‘aiming to put ourselves higher inside the top ten’ in Baku.
Alpine Team Principal, Marcin Budkowski has confirmed that there will be ‘a small upgrade package’ to help the cars cope with the ‘significantly lower downforce level’ which is required around these streets of Baku compared to Monaco.
Budkowski also is wary of how ‘eventful’ the Azerbaijan GP can be with 16 retirements in F1’s last three trips, so has urged Alonso and Ocon ‘to make the most of any race events and capitalise on them.’
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