“It sounds sweet!” – Daniel Ricciardo is in awe of Fernando Alonso and his 2005 title-winning Renault R25 V10 after the Spaniard tested it at Abu Dhabi.
“It sounds sweet!” – This is how Daniel Ricciardo described the Renault R25 V10 that Fernando Alonso won the 2005 title with. The latter was driving it around at the Yas Marina Circuit as part of Renault’s last race in Formula 1. For those unaware, Renault will be re-branded to Alpine next season, a sister concern of the larger Renault group.
Ricciardo was mightily impressed with the car and the sound it made as it zoomed past the circuit. He correctly pointed out that the current generation V6 engines do not have the same “wow factor” and the “fear factor”.
“It sounded more impressive (than the current V6 cars) and that’s the V10, isn’t it, 2005’s V10. It screams. So, it’s got the wow factor and it’s got the fear factor as well.”
“Don’t get me wrong, visually the cars now have a bigger wow factor than ever because they’re so fast, but they don’t have that intimidation behind the sound and that roar and that scream.”
WATCH: Fernando Alonso in action with the 2005 title-winning Renault R25 V10
Daniel Ricciardo: Alonso knows only one speed, and it’s fast!
Daniel Ricciardo, who will bid farewell to Renault after this season to move to McLaren, had words of praise for the greatest-ever Renault F1 driver, Fernando Alonso. And he was absolutely stunned when he was told that Alonso’s lap time in the aforementioned lap was 1:39 minutes. That is just 4 seconds slower than the pole position lap by Max Verstappen at yesterday’s qualifying.
“Really? Wait. 1:39? Whoa! He’s moving. Alright, so he’s not that slow. I watched the onboard. It was pretty cool. I guess anyone thinking Fernando’s too old, it isn’t the case, that’s for sure.”
“I think he only knows one speed that guy and it’s fast and even kerbs and that, he wasn’t shy to hustle the equipment.”
