Fernando Alonso has said there is no excuse for his performance at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Alonso crashed on his way to the grid before the race, sliding off a wet track and damaging his car’s front wing. He spent much of the grand prix running outside of the top ten but was elevated to a points finish after Kimi Raikkonen was hit with a post-race penalty.
Alonso, who won F1 titles in 2005 and 2006, spent the last two years racing in other categories, but does not think that break is a reasonable explanation for his performance.
“I think each of us has a different story and a different theme or difficulty,” Alonso said. “I changed teams many times – I even changed categories or series many times – and there is always a period of adaptation.
“But it has been never an excuse, and it’s not been an excuse now. I should be better. I was not at the right level this weekend, but I will be in Portimao.”
Alonso won at Imola in 2005 but struggled on his return to the Italian circuit. The race was held in changeable conditions, having started in the rain and finished in conditions suitable for dry tyres but with a wet track off the racing line.
The Spanish driver said the experience will only help him get back to his previous levels.
“Probably tend to agree it looks like that. It cannot be an excuse to say that – it is quite obvious that every lap we do, these (new) drivers will feel more comfortable, and (Sunday) was one of those days where it triples the experience.
“From lap one to the end we change conditions and grip level so many times during the race – we had one red flag, one standing start, one rolling start. There were a lot of things to practice and a lot of things to go through that normally take 4-5 races and we compressed it into one race, a lot of activity.
“I’m happy with the learning, happy to feel the car in wet conditions. Obviously testing was one day and a half in Bahrain. It was the first time on intermediates, dry conditions with only one narrow line on the circuit.
“A lot of lessons to take, to analyze, and feeling-wise, from lap one to lap 63 I felt 300% better in how confident I am in the car. But this cannot be an excuse to say that I did not perform well. I have to be more prepared and more ready next time – it doesn’t matter if you have little time or no time in the car, I will try to be better on the next one.”