Fernando Alonso makes surprise Ferrari prediction after personal McLaren investigation
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Fernando Alonso believes Ferrari “should be the car to beat” at Monza this weekend, and at the Singapore Grand Prix in September as well.
The Scuderia have not won a race since Charles Leclerc’s emotional home victory in Monaco back in May, but with team principal Fred Vasseur having predicted prior to the summer break that Monza and Singapore should suit the SF-24, Alonso agrees with that assessment.
Fernando Alonso: Ferrari should be ‘car to beat’ at Monza
Additional reporting by Sam Cooper
Ferrari took 3rd and 5th places at the Dutch Grand Prix through Leclerc and Carlos Sainz respectively, with Sainz recovering from a Q2 exit to make it back into the top five, while Leclerc held off the McLaren of Oscar Piastri for the majority of the race after leapfrogging him at the start.
But with Monza presenting a completely different challenge for the teams, Alonso predicts the Scuderia should be a factor for the race victory this weekend.
“I think the top four teams, maybe Mercedes are a little bit up and down, but McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari, they are podium contenders every weekend,” Alonso told media including PlanetF1.com at Zandvoort.
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“Next two races, for example, Ferrari should be the car to beat. You know what we saw last year in Monza and Singapore, Leclerc winning Monaco this year, also for Singapore, I think they will be the favourite.”
As for his team, Aston Martin struggled to keep pace with the top four teams in the Netherlands, Alonso finishing in the last of the points-paying positions and a lap behind race winner Lando Norris.
Given he was behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly on the day, with his former team having had the slowest car on the grid at the start of the season, Alonso explained the team “need to get better” for the remainder of the season.
“Yeah, I think so,” Alonso responded when asked if a 10th place finish was the best available result to him on Sunday.
“Probably even one point is a little bit too much for the pace we had, but we did a good qualifying yesterday and starting P7 obviously, that gave us the possibility to score this point.
“We need to get better. There are a couple of races already that we are struggling to to keep up with some of the midfield teams, and we we need to understand why, and we need to get better.”
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