06/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Anything is possible insists two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso following an "amazing" night in Bahrain.
While it was Ferrari's reliability Achilles Heel that opened the door for Fernando Alonso in claiming the final podium place along with the Red Bull drivers, for his part the Spaniard had to pull off a couple of brilliant overtakes, first with Lewis Hamilton and later Carlos Sainz.
And while Leclerc's retirement can be described as a 'what if', as might the opening form of the Mercedes, Alonso insists that nothing is impossible.
"When you are P3 in race one, and there are 22 more opportunities this season," he smiled, "you know, anything can happen in 22 races with different conditions. And, you know I will try my best to have the opportunity.
"Maybe we need some help," he added. "Maybe this year, if there is this help or there is some retirements in front of us or some problems maybe it's more than a podium. So let's hope for that.
"This is just the beginning," he vowed. "You know, this is not the final car, this is just the starting car of this concept that we changed over winter.
"Some of the top teams they just kept the philosophy that they had last year," he continued. "Red Bull or Ferrari they kept more of the same shapes, just, fine-tuning things and making perfection of that good baseline that they had.
"For us, it was much more difficult. We had to change 95% of the car. So, I guess there is more to learn from the car, and there is more to come on our side."
Referring to his skirmishes with Hamilton and Sainz, both of which required the Spaniard to dig deep into his 'box of tricks', he said: "On the final stint I had to pass Lewis and Carlos. So, all in all, I'm sure that you lose ten or fifteen seconds on all those battles. So if we are 40 seconds behind the leader, we could have been maybe 20 seconds, or 30 seconds."
At race end he was finally told the identity of the driver who has clouted him on the opening lap and almost ended his race before it has begun.
"I thought it was George," he said. "Lance is my hero,” he continued. “Amazing performance from him. He had surgery 12 days ago and now he's fighting right with everybody."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Manama here.