Fernando Alonso has given his verdict on Alpine's season so far, suggesting that they have overachieved.
The Spaniard will be leaving the team at the end of the year and joining Aston Martin with the announcement at the start of the summer break raising a few eyebrows.
Indeed, that was because Alpine have gone along so well this year, looking as though they could finish fourth in the Constructors' standings, though McLaren are looking to stop them, whilst Aston have had a fair few struggles in 2022.
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Fernando Alonso says Alpine have overachieved
Alpine's expectations might not have been to challenge for fourth at the start of the season, however, with Alonso suggesting that they would have been dreaming of fighting McLaren at the start of the campaign, with the Woking team battling Ferrari last year for third in the standings.
Offering a verdict on his team's season so far, Fernando said: “Very impressive. I think we started a little bit worried in Bahrain and winter testing.
“We had some up and downs there in terms of performance. But I think from Australia or Jeddah onwards, the team has grown up a lot and the engine also is much better than last year.
“We had some reliability issues, but we have more power than last year, so we accept that.
“We are now fighting McLaren [in] the Constructors’ Championship and maybe that was a little bit of a dream at the beginning of the year, so I think we are overachieving compared to what we thought.”
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The fight for fourth place
BARCELONA, SPAIN - MAY 22: Esteban Ocon of France driving the (31) Alpine F1 A522 Renault leads Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL36 Mercedes during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on May 22, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Alpine and McLaren have been battling all year long and it looks as though it's a fight for fourth that could go right to the wire.
The French/British team are currently 18 points better off than their rivals in the standings but that can soon change, depending on which weekends and tracks suit which cars.
There's plenty, then, still to play for.
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