Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Jeddah Corniche Circuit, 2021

“‘El Plan’ is still loading and we’ll have some fun” in 2022 – Alonso

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In the round-up: Fernando Alonso expects to have “more fun” in the 2022 Formula 1 season when Alpine’s new car arrives.

In brief

Alonso has faith in ‘El Plan’

Having returned to F1 this year, Alonso and Alpine have prioritised work on next year’s technical regulations from the outset, and the two-times world champion is hopeful they’ll be more competitive.

“It’s a big year with the new regulation changes,” said Alonso. “We hope to be one of the teams who capitalise on them and be more competitive next year.

“It’s all very difficult to predict. All we can do is have a strong winter and prepare for next year as best as we can. A lot of preparation has already gone into the design for next year, so let’s see where we are at the first test and take it from there.

“‘El Plan’ is still loading and we’ll have some fun that’s for sure.”

Beganovic stays in Formula Regional Europe

Prema driver Dino Beganovic will remain with the team for a second season in the Formula Regional Europe series having finished 13th in the championship this year. Team principal Rene Roisin says he expects the 17-year-old Ferrari Driver Academy member to be a championship contender.

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Comment of the day

Yesterday’s news about the Belgian Grand Prix promoters’ offer to spectators who sat in the rain for hours at this year’s event without seeing a single lap of competitive F1 action disappointed many:

I also visited the GP in Spa (this was the worst organised event I’ve ever attended, crowd control was poor – lorries driving in the opposite direction of streams of people leaving the circuit – its a miracle no-one was injured).

Anyway, I bought an overpriced Sunday only Bronze ticket and although I fully understanding the reasons for not staging the race, it is obvious what was done to avoid compensation.

I enquired at info@spagrandprix.com (on August 30th) about compensation options available. The reply as reported above arrived via email yesterday… it cannot be classed as compensation, more of a goodwill gesture.

I would have definitely bought discounted (not actually sure of the rate to persuade me) tickets for 2022. Yes the situation is disappointing, and I won’t be investing in F1 races again.
Mike

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Arun Srini, Fastmovingthoughts, Stig 3 and Dom!

On this day in motorsport

  • Born on this day in 1905: Pierre Levegh, who started six F1 races and died in the terrible 1955 Le Mans crash along with over 80 spectators

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on ““‘El Plan’ is still loading and we’ll have some fun” in 2022 – Alonso”

  1. No, it is on par with armageddon!

  2. It’s all within the expectation of Alonso’s master 🅱️lan

  3. Nothing would make me happier than seeing Alpine, McLaren and Ferrari fighting at the front next year.

    F1 really needs a fresh of breath air after this year’s rivalry.

    1. @skipgamer I’m most confident about Ferrari becoming a top team again, but I agree, more teams fighting for top positions would be good.

    2. Hopefully there are more wins from other teams on merit and not after some extraordinary events on track.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      22nd December 2021, 11:59

      Next year will be really interesting as it’s been fairly rare looking back to have big regulation overhauls like we’re going to see this year and for the running order to stay the same.

      McLaren seem to have quietly built a really strong team and the way they tailed off throughout the season suggests they put almost all of their focus onto next year’s car.

  4. I heard rumour about two team having a breakthrough on ground effects. I hope they were Alpine and Aston Martin. I knew it just a rumour but it would be great if the front rows of 2022 are Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso & Vettel.

    1. @ruliemaulana I’d like to read about that rumor, but unfortunately, I can’t find anything on that.

    2. Rumor you heard or read it somewhere?

      1. Could be something it was hard to read as i am not proficent in that Lang. but the discusion they are talking about something some teams found. (double diffusor) So Astin, Alphin, Mercedes Ferrari and Red Bull but we don’t know which ones.

        1. @macleod Translation: ”There are many rumors in F1, and many you have to bring a pinch of salt. A rumor that I heard in Abu Dhabi is that there are supposed to be two teams that have found something smart with the 22 cars that the others have not found out. Which teams I do not know, but maybe we’ll get a Brawn situation?”

          1. What will make things really interesting and bring out the conspiracy crowd is the basic difference between the current flat bottom cars and the tunnel ground effect rules for next year.
            Rather than all the gubbins being out in the open or in the diffuser section as present, there will be much more hidden away and out of sight.
            If one or more teams really nails it, and expect this to be the case, all the others will be calling fowl. Only the FIA will know the details.
            There will be load of protests and bashing going on. Should be incredibly entertaining.

          2. You raised interesting view there, @rekibsn
            So the only time rivals could see is when the car being crane out of the track then.

  5. Likening the end of the Abu Dhabi GP to the hand of God or Geoff Hurst’s non-goal in the 1966 final is telling, since neither of those things would have changed the overall outcome if they’d been properly ruled out.

    1. I’m no football expert but I’m pretty sure Maradonna wouldn’t have been on the pitch to score his other goal had the hand of god been seen by the officials, bringing Argentina down to 10 men and the score 0-0. Could have been a very different outcome.

      1. someone or something
        22nd December 2021, 10:15

        I’m already wasting way too much time on a silly comparison by a silly man (Wolff, to avoid any ambiguity) by even clicking on the “Reply” button, but here goes:
        “The hand of god” would’ve been a reason for a yellow card for Maradona. Deliberate handball is only ever grounds for a red card if used to prevent a goal scoring opportunity.

        1. by a silly man

          Why do you have to include this?

    2. If Geoff Hurst’s goal had been ruled out, it would’ve still been 2-2. Germany probably wouldn’t have been pushing so hard, which would not have allowed the breakaway for England’s fourth goal.
      In both scenarios, it was a turning point in the match.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      22nd December 2021, 11:54

      I think it’s a good comparison to be fair – they are both incidents that affected games but are a million miles away from “the most controversial sporting moments” as some have claimed.

      We’ve had various incidents of match fixing, state sponsored doping, situations like what happened with Lance Armstrong where someone dominated for years by cheating and so on….

      The incidents he mentioned were decisions by referees that were wrong and affected games but ultimately, didn’t decide the result on their own. If England had played better against Argentina, they could have overcome a 1 goal deficit. If Germany had played better against England, they could have done the same. If Mercedes and Lewis had been stronger throughout the season, they could have gone into the final race without having to beat Max in order to wrap up the title.

      1. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually @petebaldwin!

  6. Wolff still seething. Maybe he should get a driver who can turn left in Baku or Imola and we would have a different conversation

  7. COTD: Bruhhh I am so sorry.. I advise everyone to buy a General Admission ticket if you plan to watch for three days. Don’t buy a grandstand ticket for one day really.

    1. Yeah, I really feel for the Mike (CotD) as well.

      I also agree that the General admission tickets tend to offer the best worth for many tracks unless you can get grand stand tickets with some promotion offer

  8. The hand of god and the race restart are very similar in the way that they proceeded two memorable actions in the history of both sports. Maradona goal of the century and Max’s overtake to win the WDC. Also the entire world was cheering for Argentina and RBR in both events :)
    As for the Wembley goal the matter was settled in 2010 with Lampard’s equalizer being cancelled albeit 1 meter after the goal line.

    1. It is also showing a dangerous mentality that I fear will end in tragedy.

      It is not the role of the race director to engineer an exciting finale. Their role is explicitly defined as ensuring that the race is held in a manner that obeys the regulations and in the safest practical way.

      The moment that they start thinking of what is most exciting for the viewers, they are, by definition, exceeding their role. In previous races, that has arguably resulted in dangerous decisions being made out of the same mentality that “the show” was more important than basic safety regulations.

      It was this mentality of “the show is the priority” that resulted in the near miss in Imola last year, where the rush to restart the race resulted in marshals still being on the track with cars unlapping themselves.

      It was that same mentality that meant we had a rushed restart in Turkey, with marshals left on track with cars circulating round at speed in poor conditions that ran the risk of another car sliding off and into those track workers.

      The same idea that “the show” was more important than strictly following the rules is the same idea that resulted in reckless decisions from race control that could have caused a potentially fatal accident in those other races, where “the show” was allowed to override safety regulations.

      My worry is that if “the show” is allowed to become too important, we are going to end up with repeated incidents of the type we saw in Turkey or Imola – and the more times that Masi creates those sorts of situations, the higher the risk that someone will run out of luck and it will end in disaster because “the show” was allowed to cloud the judgement of race control.

      You might think it is fine because you like what happened next. However, one of these days, you may end up watching something that results in something that you don’t want to remember because someone was more worried about trying to script entertainment than caring about why those rules were made in the first place.

    2. anon,
      That was a sarcastic response to Toto comment about the hand of god and the 1966 Wembley goal. I agree with most of what you said by the way. Who says that I’m fine with Masi and the FIA ruling especially with Jean Todt in charge – hopefully he is gone -and Ross Brawn on the other side pushing for gimmicks to be introduced to spice up the show. I have been calling all of them out in this same forum.

      The last paragraph that you wrote is the exact reason why I’m calling Toto’s hypocrisy. He is only complaining not because the rules and safety measures were not applied in a correct way but because things didn’t went his way. I don’t remember him complaining about race direction or the FIA when their ruling was in his favour despite the fact that the procedures were not correctly followed.

  9. Good idea to have the plan at the start of the season.

  10. The truth is he’s always like he knows something secret, big thing is going to happen guys, you’ll see, i promise, just wait, the best is yet to come… At the same time didn’t believe in Red Bull during 2008. Same with Honda/Brawn GP. Didn’t look at Mercedes when they weren’t winning. Was very optimistic about Honda, make McLaren great again! GP2 engine, give us Renault, finishes 5th, now we can fight! Gasly finishes 4th with Honda engine next race… If El Plan is an art of making wrong choices then agree.

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