By role
May 30 2003

Fernando Alonso has surprised most of the paddock this season with his driving skills and his ability to put his car on the podium this year in 3 out of 6 races. Alonso has time and time again said that the hype should go down as he is on his first year on Renault as official driver and has yet much to learn. He has also said that he was bound to make mistakes sooner or later.

After a brilliant race at Barcelona, where Alonso finished second just behind the newly launched Ferrari 2003-GA, there was no one in the paddock that would not recognize the skills of the 21 year old as well as the potential that he had.

However, since then, we have seen Alonso make his first mistake at the qualifying session in Austria and a less than good performance at yesterday’s qualifying in Monaco.

This is indeed a learning year for the young Spaniard, and that can be easily seen on the sessions in Friday. His average qualifying position on Fridays is 11th position. Taking under consideration that he is driving on what is considered to be the 3rd or 4th best team and that he has 2 extra hours on those Fridays, his average grid position is less than what should be expected.

As a matter of fact only on the season opener at the Australian GP did Alonso achieve a grid position on Friday that reflected the potential of his car. At Australia he finished with the 7th best time. He was quite positive after that session: “…This first day went extremely well, I feel confident in the potential of the car and very satisfied with the way the team has been working with me." He said.

After that he has not been in the top 8, with the best a ninth on Brazil. Yesterday marked his lowest grid position on a Friday, actually it was on a Thursday, by finishing with the 14th best time, more than 1.4 seconds behind his teammate who finished 4th. He was clearly not as happy with his effort: “It was a tough first day, as usually on Monaco. I am disappointed of how things have gone on the qualifying, but fortunately is only Friday, and the real things will be on Saturday, and as things go better on Saturday and Sunday I am not worried too much, however, it just shows how complicated is this track. It is easy to touch the barriers or to loose the line, and any mistake costs lots of time."

His teammate, however, has an average grid position of 8th on Friday’s sessions, something that is more a reflection of the potential of the car.

Alonso, it seems, is struggling on Friday sessions when he has to show his speed in a light car. He has several times argued that the Renault R23 is easier to drive heavier than lighter, and his times in the first session clearly show that.

Let’s hope that on Saturday May 31st, as he gets out of the pits toward the Monaco track he can show as the brilliance seen at Sepang or Barcelona and finish on the top 5.

After two consecutive less-than-satisfactory sessions it would be quite good for his morale.