Sakhir 15 February 2019
The F138 of 2013 is the most recent single-seater appearing in the F1 Clienti programme this weekend at the Sakhir circuit. This car, driven by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, proved very competitive in the first part of that year’s championship when the Spaniard drove it to two wins and a second place in the first five races.
Evolution. The car, powered by a 2.4-litre V8 engine, could be seen as an evolution of the F2012 in terms of its basic design principles, although every single part had been revised in order to maximise performance while maintaining all the characteristics which were the basis of the extraordinary reliability of the 2012 car.
Comeback. After Alonso's victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, the F138 didn't have much luck in the fourth round of the world championship in Bahrain. The potential it had shown in qualifying didn’t manifest during the race. Alonso, in particular, was forced back to the pits to fix the DRS that remained open even when cornering, rendering the car unmanageable. Two pit stops relegated the Spaniard to seventeenth place from which he fought back to finish in eighth.