Alpine race engineer Karel Loos has worked over the years with numerous drivers at the Enstone squad, and says Fernando Alonso is much less effusive over the radio than his predecessors, and especially Daniel Ricciardo.
Alonso replaced the Aussie at Alpine following the latter's move to McLaren, and the Spaniard thus inherited Ricciardo's race engineer.
Alonso and Loos now form a well-acquainted tandem, and the Belgian engineer, who also worked with Jolyon Palmer, Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz, says the Spaniard, for all his candor off the track, is a man of few words on the team's radio compared to his predecessor.
"Fernando uses far fewer words than Daniel," Loos told Dutch website Formule1.nl. "But you get to know each other better and better and understand what someone wants."
Loos insists Alonso will speak his mind during debriefs but will also defer to an engineer's expert opinion and won't force a specific point of view.
"He is very focused on the details," he added. "Fernando gives his opinion but does not impose it. If he finds something, but someone in engineering says ‘it’s different, and that’s why’, he accepts it and fully supports it."
Loos also highlighted Alonso's vast experience which is a big positive for Alpine.
"Fernando is very good at reading a race. That helps enormously."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
