Fernando Alonso claims he was not surprised by the speed of the Mercedes cars in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton wound up second and third for the German outfit on Saturday in Melbourne, only behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Mercedes have endured a disappointing start to the new season, with the team yet to score a podium finish and admitting it requires an extensive rethink of its car concept.
Although Mercedes’ strong pace in qualifying was unexpected to many, Alonso says its current situation had been reported to be far worse than it was in reality.
“No, I think in Jeddah they were within 0.1s of the pace on Sunday to us,” Alonso pointed out when asked if he was surprised by Mercedes’ emergence.
“Here they were P2, yesterday I think Lewis… If you read their comments, sure, you think they have a car that is out of Q3 but I don’t think it’s that bad.
“It’s not as good as Red Bull – no-one has a car close to Red Bull – but they are getting better and they will be a contender for wins soon.
“They did last year and they won a race after a very bad start, so I think this year they are also showing the potential that they have.
Although the threat of rain failed to materialise, the cooler conditions throughout qualifying provided a difficult obstacle for the drivers to overcome.
While Alonso was unable to place his car on the front row like in Saudi Arabia, the two-time champion was enthused by how close Aston Martin got to Verstappen’s pole time.
“Yeah, I mean the circuit was a little bit difficult to judge sometimes and especially the wind was changing in strength and direction, but I think it was quite a pretty normal qualifying for us, improving a little bit every session,” he explained.
“In terms of performance, arguably this was the best qualifying for us of the three, I think it’s the closest we’ve been to pole position.
He added: “The car felt fast and easy to drive and I enjoyed it, so let’s see tomorrow what we can do. The Mercedes were very fast in Q3 and they did a better job but let’s see tomorrow if we can challenge them.”
Having scored podiums in both races to take place in 2023, Alonso is anticipating a tougher challenge to emerge in his search for a third consecutive top-three finish.
After enjoying the luxury of starting ahead of both Mercedes’ in Jeddah a fortnight ago, the Spanish racer considers the reversal of those starting positions for tomorrow’s race a difficult factor to overcome.
Despite Ferrari suffering its worst qualifying display of the year in Australia, the Spaniard, formerly of the Italian team, is also not ruling it out from contention for a podium spot.
“I started also in front of the Mercedes, and they had very similar pace in Jeddah compared to me, so I think if they start in front it’s going to be very difficult to overtake them,” issued the one-time Australian GP winner.
“So tomorrow I think the race is probably with the Red Bull, the two Mercedes and probably the Ferraris as well that are better here with these cooler conditions. So it’s going to be an interesting race.”
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