McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso has already put the disappointment of his retirement from Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix behind him and is now looking ahead to the third round on the 2017 Formula One agenda, this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Last year this race was second on the calendar and Alonso was forced to sit the event out due to injuries sustained in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, so he is eager to get back out on a track he has good memories of.
Of the dozen Bahrain Grands Prix that have been held since the event's inception in 2004, surprisingly McLaren has never managed to win a single one, but by contrast, Fernando has won the race no fewer than three times, a victory total that eclipses the efforts of any other driver [Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa have all won it twice].
Sad to say, however, it is extremely unlikely that the Spaniard will add to his impressive victory tally this coming weekend, and neither will McLaren break its Bahrain duck, but the good news is that the weather will be much better than teams suffered with in Shanghai!
“I'm looking forward to going back to Bahrain, especially as I missed last year's race – I have good memories from my three victories there, and racing in twilight is always a fun experience. The Bahrain Grand Prix is always a pretty long race, so our first priority is to ensure we have reliability against the heat and harsh conditions of the desert before we can start thinking about performance,” he said.
“On the performance side, before retiring the car in Shanghai I was running in a very promising position, and our pace was much stronger than anticipated, so I'll be pleased if we can have some more good surprises in Bahrain!”
However, that said, he knows that the weekend ahead wont be an easy one…
“It will be another challenging race for us; the long straights don't make it easy and there's a lot for the engineers to work on. Brake wear and fuel consumption is high, and set-up is tricky as the track temperatures change a lot during the weekend, as we race later into the evening compared to the usual schedule. I'm pushing hard to get the absolute maximum out of our package every time I leave the garage, and in Bahrain I'll approach the weekend in exactly the same way.”
