Alpine sees little difference between Alonso and Verstappen in Barcelona

Alan Permane argues that Alpine is on the right track. The British sporting director states that there are enough leads towards the second week of testing in Bahrain. He even states that a lap time of Fernando Alonso at the Barcelona circuit is comparable to what Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen did.

Permane told Autosport.com that he doesn't want to sound like he's making excuses, but according to the top executive Alpine is in a pretty good position. He does not want to suggest that the French formation will immediately beat top teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, but there is at least some confidence within Alpine.

Alonso comparable to Verstappen

On Friday morning Alonso came to a 1:21.242. That time is an sich not very impressive to call, because it went over two seconds faster during the test week by other teams, but still there is optimism. According to Permane, Alonso's time was comparable to what Max Verstappen was doing at the time. The only difference is that Verstappen was driving with DRS and Alonso was not.

Alpine took a good look at Alonso's and Verstappen's GPS using FIA systems and it showed that the data was almost identical. Verstappen was only faster on the straights, but that makes sense since Alonso was driving without an open rear wing. However, how much this says about the proportions in three weeks is unknown.

How good is Alpine?

It is known that Red Bull did not show everything during the first three test days in Spain. At Alpine, however, they are very pleased with the steps made. Where it will take the team from Viry in 2022 remains to be seen. Craig Scarborough, the Formula 1 tech expert, for example, let it be known that he was not impressed at all by Alpine's A522. Does Alpine know that Red Bull has been sandbagging?