The 2022 season is three races old and Ferrari has stormed out of the gate. There is a three-way battle for first, between Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes, but the latter two are lacking in terms of pace and reliability compared to Ferrari. Former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso also believes the Maranello-based team are in a league of their own.

Alonso’s Alpine seems to be the surprise package this season. Although they are not anywhere near the top three on the standings, the team has shown some incredible pace matching Red Bull and Mercedes. The Spaniard matched Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in the first two sectors during Q3 in Australia. However, a crash into the barriers meant he could not complete the lap.

Fernando Alonso feels keeping up with Ferrari’s pace is tough

Alpine has had an up and down start. The French team has shown promise but struggled with reliability issues. Esteban Ocon sits 7th in the driver’s standings and is one of the four drivers to score points in all three races. Meanwhile, Alonso has had his fair share of unfortunate moments.

Alonso believes closing the gap with Ferrari is a hard task, but feels the car has huge potential. He said, “Matching Ferrari’s pace I think is going to be difficult because obviously, we are eight tenths of a second or a second behind at the moment if you look at the qualifying performance of the first two races.”

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With new upgrades lined up, they will hope to compete with the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes at the top. “Narrowing that gap will be a little too optimistic, but we’ll see. We need to keep working, it’s still very early on the development of these cars. You can find something bigger than you thought at the beginning, when you try it in the wind tunnel, and maybe with that you can take a huge step,” he added.

Ferrari are already so far ahead and the rest are trying to play catch up with them. Earlier, Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer revealed their engine has only 10 horsepower less than Ferrari. Alpine will look to close the gap between themselves and Ferrari, but they have an uphill task.

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Ferrari is currently unrivaled, but can Alpine close in on Red Bull and Mercedes. Fernando Alonso and co feel the car has potential. Where will Alpine finish? Leave your predictions in the comments.