Fernando Alonso has slowly but surely grown more comfortable with Alpine's A521, thanks in large part to the changes undertaken by the team to adapt the car to the Spaniard's requirements.
By his own admittance, Alonso reckoned he would need a few races to get back into the groove with Alpine after a two-year hiatus from the sport.
But the F1 veteran, who turned 40 on July 29, admits that his period of adjustment took a bit longer than expected.
"I said at the beginning that I would need three or four races in order to be at the level of the car," he said in an interview with Spanish outlet SoyMotor.com.
"In the end, they were more, six or seven, but now I am more comfortable in the car."
And the two-time world champion's results have followed his improvements and familiarization, with Alonso heading into F1's summer break with six consecutive top-ten finishes under his belt, including a scintillating drive to P4 in Hungary where his battle with Lewis Hamilton helped teammate and first-time winner Esteban Ocon deliver to the Alpine brand its first triumph in F1.
"Some things have helped me… not only in terms of racing but also the things that happen outside of the car," he explained.
"The front tyres, which this year are more delicate… And we’ve changed a few things in the car to adapt it to my driving style, from the power steering to the feeling you get from the steering wheel or the level of grip it transmits you.
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"Some small adjustments in the brake balance and the engine brake… Every driver has their own set-up when it comes to adjusting the car and getting the most out of it has taken us the time that I more or less expected."
Alonso underscored the crucial importance of the feel he gets, transferred mainly front the car's front end through the steering wheel.
Without that palpable "feel", he claims he's "defenceless" behind the wheel of a racing car.
"Because of my driving style, I’ve always done an aggressive movement of the steering wheel in the middle of the corner, and from then on I just feel the front tyres. If the steering wheel gets softer, it means they’re losing grip," Alonso said.
"If it gets harder, then they have too much grip and you can expect the rear of the car to move at some point in time.
"I normally feel everything with my hands and the front end of the car. If they take this out of me, I am dead.
"Other drivers are not, because they feel the car with the body or they do different things, but I am defenceless if they take the front tyres out of me.
"Then I can’t predict [the car]. We’ve worked on that just to have a lot of feeling in the steering wheel."
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