Alonso displays stunning skills in podium duel with ‘Checo’ Perez in Brazil

fernando alonsoafter he reached the podium Brazilian F1 Grand Prixreveals the tricks he uses to make things more difficult “Checo” Perez When the Mexicans made a full comeback with better racing pace and better cars. The Asturian assured that he believed he had “everything under control” and that the podium would be his, but with five laps to go “everything went wrong” when “Checo” When the car started showing him the way to overtake him. It was the appetizer for an epic finale, with Alonso outmaneuvering the Mexican in masterful fashion to win the battle for the podium.

Fernando Alonso first had to prevent the Red Bull driver from falling behind if he was to win his one-on-one duel with Perez on the final lap. The Mexican driver reached Fernando with about 17 laps to go. Everything seems to indicate that a better car should pass him quickly. But Asturias managed to keep their distance from Perez, who seemed unable to get close to the man from Oviedo. Fernando controlled his opponent through a cunning strategy in which he tried to increase the chances of “Checo” making a mistake while minimizing Perez’s options of closing in and running the car into him.

magic? No. Hands, immense talent and cunning. Like every “magician,” he has his own tricks. Fernando himself revealed after the race how he did it: “Sometimes I go wider, sometimes narrower, so as not to give him any indication of which line is best for me. ‘Checo’ always was to try the opposite, and as a result “I was driving in dirty air all the time,” Fernando said.

Alonso therefore stressed that he could not give “Checo” the option of studying his line or avoiding the wake of turbulent air. Turbulent air reduces the aerodynamics of the vehicle behind you. If “Checo” saw Alonso turning one way on a lap, he would try a route to get cleaner air, but Alonso would change his trajectory when it was time to turn to prevent this.

He saves power when driving so as not to lose the race on the straight

“When you are in front you have better aerodynamics. Checo had to swallow my turbulence and try to follow me, especially in turns 10, 11 and 12. I just had to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes there mistakes, and making sure I had enough charge going into the straight, “that gave me an advantage going into the straight,” he argued. This was another key point.

Driving at the fastest speed, fighting for the podium against the pressure of faster cars behind him, after more than 60 laps of fatigue, Alonso has enough talent to think about driving while retaining enough battery to prevent his car from failing. Lost top speed. On the straight, the opponent is the faster Red Bull. That’s Alonso. Pilots are also engineers. He proved it again.