Alonso makes Alpine development demand

Fernando Alonso has urged Alpine to push its development as he believes the team has not scored the points it deserved from the opening two races this F1 season.

Alpine has made a reasonable start to the new year to sit fourth in the constructors' standings on 16 points behind leaders Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.

In Saudi Arabia, Alonso unfortunately retired late on from a points-scoring position after engaging in a thrilling battle with team-mate Esteban Ocon and Mercedes driver George Russell.

The two-time F1 champion, however, feels Alpine "deserve to be much higher in the standings after two races".

He added: "Our car has been good and the performance has also been good over the weekends.

"Saudi Arabia was a disappointment as we looked comfortable and set for sixth position until we had our retirement.

"It was frustrating but we can be pleased with our overall pace so far. Sundays is where the points are scored so we just need to make sure we score points then.

"The whole team is working hard to make sure we keep on top of our development. We had some fair and exciting racing in Saudi and also in Bahrain."

Alonso hopeful of Australia overtaking

After three years in between races, Melbourne's Albert Park returns to again host the Australian Grand Prix which has undergone a major facelift since the 2020 event was postponed and then ultimately cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of corners have been widened or reprofiled and the old turn nine-10 chicane has been replaced with a flowing section of track that has made space for a fourth DRS zone.

Commenting on the changes, Alonso added: "I like the track and whilst it’s quite difficult to overtake the changes have been made to encourage this, so we’ll see how it all plays out."

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