Fernando Alonso has welcomed the change in format at the Mexico
City Grand Prix this weekend. The last two rounds of the
championship were run under the sprint schedule with just one
practice session taking place on Friday afternoon. However, for the
upcoming weekend in Mexico, F1 will return to its traditional
format of three practice sessions preceding qualifying and the
race. Aston Martin introduced upgrades in the United States last
weekend but was unable to optimise the package with little practice
time available. With three sessions to utilise in Mexico, Alonso
has asserted that the team plans to take full advantage of the
schedule. “I think it is a completely different track with
different needs,” the two-time World Champion told media including
RacingNews365. “So we will use the full practice this time after a
few sprint events. “We are more relaxed now and happier that we
have FP1, FP2 and FP3 to optimise things. “It's going to be the
same for everybody but we really need these three practice sessions
that are coming in the next days.” Alonso hails Aston Martin's US
efforts Aston Martin suffered a double-Q1 exit at the Circuit of
the Americas last time out, the first time it has done so this
year. It opted to take both of its cars out of parc ferme
conditions to optimise its race pace, with Alonso returning to the
old specification. The Spaniard displayed strong speed in the Grand
Prix but was forced to retire after sustaining damage to his floor,
while his team-mate Lance Stroll went on to score his first points
since after the summer break. Asked about where Aston Martin found
the gains in the US, Alonso said: “Optimising the setup. “I think
on the sprint weekends you have the risk of you know having only
one session where you have to optimise everything in the car. “We
didn't and we had a very difficult session in FP1 with brake
problems. We opted to change the setup, optimise a little bit
everything in the package and start from the pit lane. “And that
was a nice result for us good information that we got from from
Austin. “The pace that we saw on Sunday, it was a combination of
being optimised on our side and maybe our main opponents were not
optimized having only FP1. “It was the same for everybody and we
took the opportunity to have a better Sunday.”
City Grand Prix this weekend. The last two rounds of the
championship were run under the sprint schedule with just one
practice session taking place on Friday afternoon. However, for the
upcoming weekend in Mexico, F1 will return to its traditional
format of three practice sessions preceding qualifying and the
race. Aston Martin introduced upgrades in the United States last
weekend but was unable to optimise the package with little practice
time available. With three sessions to utilise in Mexico, Alonso
has asserted that the team plans to take full advantage of the
schedule. “I think it is a completely different track with
different needs,” the two-time World Champion told media including
RacingNews365. “So we will use the full practice this time after a
few sprint events. “We are more relaxed now and happier that we
have FP1, FP2 and FP3 to optimise things. “It's going to be the
same for everybody but we really need these three practice sessions
that are coming in the next days.” Alonso hails Aston Martin's US
efforts Aston Martin suffered a double-Q1 exit at the Circuit of
the Americas last time out, the first time it has done so this
year. It opted to take both of its cars out of parc ferme
conditions to optimise its race pace, with Alonso returning to the
old specification. The Spaniard displayed strong speed in the Grand
Prix but was forced to retire after sustaining damage to his floor,
while his team-mate Lance Stroll went on to score his first points
since after the summer break. Asked about where Aston Martin found
the gains in the US, Alonso said: “Optimising the setup. “I think
on the sprint weekends you have the risk of you know having only
one session where you have to optimise everything in the car. “We
didn't and we had a very difficult session in FP1 with brake
problems. We opted to change the setup, optimise a little bit
everything in the package and start from the pit lane. “And that
was a nice result for us good information that we got from from
Austin. “The pace that we saw on Sunday, it was a combination of
being optimised on our side and maybe our main opponents were not
optimized having only FP1. “It was the same for everybody and we
took the opportunity to have a better Sunday.”