Matt Harman, the Technical Director at BWT Alpine F1 Team, says it was an ‘interesting’ opening day to the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, although both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finished inside the top ten in both sessions.
Ocon ended seventh in the opening session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and followed that up by improving to sixth in the second, while Alonso ended tenth and eighth.
Alonso suffered with a gearbox issue in the first session that restricted him to just eleven laps, and Harman says the team will be looking into the problem to ensure it does not happen again.
“It’s fantastic to be back here in Singapore even if it’s extremely hot and humid!” said Harman. “It’s been an interesting day of Practice where we encountered an issue with Fernando’s gearbox with a small oil leak identified.
“As a precaution we decided not to run again in the first session, and we’ll investigate the root cause of the issue over the coming days as this is an unusual occurrence. His car was fitted with a replacement gearbox to ensure he could run in the second session.”
Harman says it was pleasing to see the new floor Alpine brought to Singapore working well, and both Ocon and Alonso will have it fitted to their cars for the rest of the weekend.
“For Free Practice 2, both cars used the new, upgraded floor, which worked in line with our expectations,” he said. “We have some work to do overnight and I look forward to seeing how tomorrow pans out.
“Overall, we’re pleased with our performance level and we’re in for a competitive weekend with both cars.”
