MARCH 30, 2019

Alonso not missing F1

Fernando Alonso insists he is not missing driving a Formula 1 car even though he has agreed to help out with the McLaren and Pirelli test duties next week.

By Dan Knutson in Sakhir

Fernando Alonso insists he is not missing driving a Formula 1 car even though he has agreed to help out with the McLaren and Pirelli test duties next week.

"Honestly (I'm) not missing (Formula 1) too much at the moment as I've been very busy," Alonso said when he met with journalists on Friday in the paddock in Bahrain during the grand prix weekend. "Maybe if I was relaxing at home maybe it was different. But I have been testing and preparing different things so not much time to miss anything. But it was this opportunity with a Pirelli test to have a second car."

Normally a team is only allowed to run one car at a time during test days. But at certain test sessions Pirelli is also testing its tires. In this case a designated team can run a second car and driver as long as they concentrate solely on tire testing and not improving the car.

Alonso will drive the McLaren/Pirelli test car on Tuesday and Wednesday during the Bahrain test. The team's race drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will do the regular testing to develop the car.

"We talked to the team in winter testing (to see if) there was any point or any benefit to the team if I was testing the car at one point during the season," Alonso said. "The team decided this was the best moment and not taking time from the race drivers to develop the car. With Pirelli it's more about testing the tires and maybe having a little bit of an idea of what the car is doing this year."

As Alonso was involved a bit last year in developing the 2019 car, he will be able to see how the car has evolved. He also wants to make his contribution to the team.

"I'm part of the McLaren family," he explained. "Whatever way my contribution can help the team I'm happy to do it."

This includes not only testing the car, but being in the pits and on the radio during the race weekend to see and hear if there is anything he can contribute to held Sainz, Norris and the engineers improve the car.