BETTER START CHEERS ALONSO
FERNANDO ALONSO, slim, bearded, and with wisps of long hair sticking out from his cap, is still wearing the most mischievous grin in Formula One. Even his promise to see out the last two years of his £25milliona-year-deal with McLarenHonda came with a caveat. ‘I have a contract,’ said the Spaniard. ‘I’m not thinking about anything else.’ But he added: ‘Our ambition is very high because I am not here just to travel around the world, jump in the car and have some fun on Sunday. I am here to win.’ If he does not win, and if his machinery is not markedly better than last year’s substandard production, he could still stroll off without a care. That is Alonso’s style but, clearly, this car is not a disaster area on first appearances. Alonso managed 119 laps in testing yesterday and talked of having the best chassis by the time of the Spanish Grand Prix in early May. Hopeful? Possibly. Behind the scenes there have been important changes. Yasuhisa Arai, head of Honda’s engine programme that was woeful last season, has been replaced by Yusuke Hasegawa. Officially, the reason is that Arai turns 60 next birthday — the company’s standard retirement age. True, but there appears to be more to it than that. McLaren wrote to the Honda president, Takahiro Hachigo, last year expressing concerns about ‘leadership’. Arai was not mentioned, but you don’t need to be Sherlock to detect that he was part of the problem. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg pounded out 172 laps in his Mercedes yesterday. That is 500 miles, a remarkable statement of impregnable reliability. No matter that Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fastest. It is laps, not times, that are usually more telling at this early stage. ‘They are very, very strong,’ said Alonso. ‘Doing that number of laps, they clearly have things sorted out, they are probably stronger than ever. To beat them is not an easy task.’ Over in Geneva the F1 Commission met about rule changes for 2017. There was some consensus on wider cars — three seconds quicker — and on a new qualifying format.