On the weekend in which he will seek his 33rd victory in Formula 1, Fernando Alonso has shown two of his great virtues from the beginning: his good work on wet tracks and his intelligence to read track conditions and take advantage of his best moment .
The rain was the protagonist in the free seconds. Without being too strong at the start, but later, almost all the riders tested the grip of the run-offs on the track more times than they wanted. Without big scares, several of them ended up going through the green to return to the pits without an optimal time. One of them was Max Verstappen, and he did force the mechanics to work. The vibrations caused a small fracture in one of the rear wing supports and in the low fenders in the area, which caused the mechanics to have extra work to fix it. Nothing serious, but all a sign of what was to come later, when everyone had to take off their dry tires to put on the intermediates (because the wet ones were never necessary).
At this point, after half an hour of this second and final session, Fernando Alonso’s time at the top of the time table was already marked in purple. The Spaniard, like the rest of the riders, made his best attempt at the beginning of the session in one of the only two laps he did on soft tyres, but in time to set the fastest time. Behind him, Charles Leclerc and a Verstappen who, without ending up unhappy, did not have a completely comfortable Friday. He knows that under normal conditions he is the favorite, but with the variable track he will find more rivals.
On a circuit like the one in Australia, which is already quite a challenge under the sun, the water is an added factor that can make it even more spicy. In this sense, any unexpected rival (or not so much) can be put in the upper zone. Proof of this is Lewis Hamilton’s great lap at the end of the first free practice, held in the dry, in which he showed that the Mercedes W14 is not as far back as it seems from the noble area above.
The joys of Alonso, the shadows of Sainz
Under normal conditions, the performance of the usually low temperatures in the Australian circuit can pose a problem for the tires of Formula 1 cars. The danger of ‘graining’ (granulation due to the accumulation of pieces of rubber on the surface of the wheels which causes you to lose grip) will be a constant throughout the weekend.
This is an added factor to take into account for all the teams and, in particular, for those that suffer the most to find the optimum point of behavior for the Pirellis. It is the case of Ferrari. Already during 2022 it was his great nightmare due to excessive wear and tear that made it very difficult to maintain competitiveness, and it seems that it continues to be a problem in 2023.
Proof of this is the performance of Carlos Sainz. Gray in the morning in the dry and then in the wet, the fifth place finish of the Madrid native does not help to believe in a podium or something else on Sunday. Sainz, unlike Alonso, is losing prominence in the headlines and post-race notes at a worrying rate, and not so much because of his performance itself, which is not worse than in previous years, far from it, but because the SF23 looks like a failed car . Or, at least, not at the level of the Red Bull, Aston Martin and, perhaps, Mercedes. This will be one of the big unknowns that will have to be resolved this Saturday, when in theory the red cars are one point more competitive, as long as the track conditions do not complicate them and the mechanics and engineers on the wall are correct. Because, unlike other teams, the confidence in the good strategic work of those responsible for the Scuderia is always, to a certain extent, under quarantine. More so in a Grand Prix like this where variability and conditioning factors can be as much allies as enemies to achieve a necessary good result that, for the moment, is eluding them.