F1: Alonso Bullish On COTA

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Bullish On COTA

Fernando Alonso is second in points with two races to go…

Tom Jensen | Posted November 15, 2012 Austin, TX

Fernando Alonso made a promotional stop on Wednesday at a Shell gas station in Austin. (Photo: SPEED)

Two-time World Champion driver Fernando Alonso likes what he’s seen so far of the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, site of Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix.

“If the grip is good and we find some good overtaking in the race — this is a question mark until Sunday — this can be probably the best circuit on the calendar,” said Alonso, who comes into the penultimate round of the Formula One championship 10 points behind fellow double World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

“If we have high tire degradation, we will see a spectacular race,” Alonso said. “We have all the factors to see a very, very nice weekend, so let’s hope to put (on) a good show for everybody. … I think the first sector is probably the most spectacular combination of corners on the calendar, so I think we will enjoy it. Very demanding for the car and very demanding for the driver as well, because if you mistake the first combination of corners, you carry that mistake for a very, very long time — for the next three or four corners.”

Alonso spoke briefly at a Shell gas station in Austin on Wednesday as part of a promotion about the technical partnership between Ferrari and Shell/Pennzoil and the oil company’s V-Power series of fuels.

With two races left on the schedule, Alonso said it will be challenging to overtake Vettel and win a third title.

“We know it’s going to be tough,” Alonso said. “They (Red Bull) are strong. They are quick, and if we want to beat them we need to do everything right. We are motivated. The team is very focused. We know that there still is only two races to go, so there is no room for mistakes. We need to deliver this weekend and next weekend.”

Alonso said he’s ready.

“I’m more or less relaxed. Nothing really to change from the other 18 races we did,” he said. “We just need to maximize our potential. We just need to find … we (must come) close to perfection if we want to beat our rivals.”

Racing for the first time at the new COTA circuit poses some unique difficulties for all teams. Among them is the fact that the grip level should improve substantially as the weekend goes on.

“It’s an extra challenge from a driver point of view, no doubt,” said Alonso. “We need to adapt to the circuit quite quickly, we need to do a little extra work on the simulator on Friday. Especially, looking at the layout of this circuit, we will need to try so many different lines … we will find extra time, I’m sure, from Friday to Saturday.

“After all the work that has been done in the past few months, the circuit’s grip improves maybe 50 or 60 percent from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday,” Alonso said. “So you need to allow a little in your driving style for this extra grip, and the team needs to adapt a little for this extra grip. Many things to do in three days, and we are ready for this.”

Still, Alonso allowed as how he will have an uphill fight against the Red Bull team, which has fielded the fastest car in recent races.

“Any circuit at this moment is better for Red Bull,” said Alonso. “They have the quickest car by far, so there is nothing really that we can do. We just need to score more points than them on Sunday. … Over the last races, we are not the fastest out there, but on Sunday we want to score, and I’m sure we’ll score, more points than (Red Bull).”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

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Tom Jensen

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