Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso calls on McLaren to take risks

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Fernando Alonso has called on McLaren to take some strategic risks during the Singapore Grand Prix, saying the team has “nothing to lose”.

Following disappointing races in Belgium and Italy, McLaren has been more competitive around the Marina Bay Circuit and Alonso will start 12th with team-mate Jenson Button in 15th place. While Alonso says the race represents McLaren’s “best chance of the year to score points”, he is wary of finding it difficult to overtake on track and feels positions will need to be gained through pit stops.

“I think it’s very unlikely that we will see overtaking moves,” Alonso said. “Probably the best opportunity is the start and the first lap in to Turn 7 but it’s still quite tough. The strategy and the laps you choose to change tyres will be crucial so we have to be very clever on that.

“Maybe we are in a position where we can take extra risks in terms of strategy because we have nothing to lose so I am optimistic for that.”

And Alonso says McLaren has had to show its full potential throughout practice to ensure it gets the most out of its car at each race.

“Yeah I like [Singapore] and I think the results of the weekend are showing that I like the place. I’m happy, comfortable in the car. The free practice for us are different compared to the other teams that have a little bit more potential and use it when it counts. For us we try to optimise what we have and every lap in practice for us is a qualifying lap or a race simulation lap, it’s not a practice lap, because we didn’t have winter testing.

“I think now we have the same mileage of the Mercedes team going to Australia. So every lap is a learning process that we are going through and in practice the results were probably too optimistic but we probably still have the best chance of the year to score points, so I’m looking forward to the race.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.