Fernando Alonso says the last two race weekends have been among the worst for Aston Martin so far this year.
But despite equalling his worst performance of the season so far with seventh place at Silverstone, Alonso expects the team’s form will improve at tracks that suit its car better.“This was, and Austria, one of the worst weekends I think for us so far and we saved quite well,” Alonso told media including RaceFans after yesterday’s British Grand Prix.
He believes a number of factors explain the team’s sub-par weekend. “It’s probably a little bit of everything,” said Alonso. “Out-developed a little bit in terms of a few teams brought some some significant upgrades lately.
“It’s track-specific, I think here was not our best layout for the package that we have. We need to see also the tyres, obviously it’s the first race that we have this new construction so it seems that maybe we need to analyse more in detail.
“But all in all I think we saved a very difficult weekend. Hopefully in Hungary we are again competitive.”
While Aston Martin have often had the quickest Mercedes-powered cars this year, the works team and the upgraded McLarens led them home at Silverstone, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton finishing on the podium. Alonso admitted he hadn’t tried to keep Hamilton behind him when he got ahead of the Mercedes early in the race.
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“They’ve been quicker the whole weekend,” he said. “So when he was behind I knew that it was not worth spending too much time defending and he had more pace. They were fast this weekend.
“So I’m happy to see Lando as well on the podium and Lewis and let’s see in Hungary if we can come back to our normal pace.”
Alonso scored six podium finishes over the first eight grands prix of 2023, but said the Aston Martin mustn’t become alarmed if they cannot produce those results again.
“To be honest, I’m not too stressed about the development,” he said. “The car is better than expected this year, we are fighting for things that we could probably never dream of at the beginning of the year.
“So now if we can keep in the top 10 and fighting with the top guys, it’s great. But I think we have to focus as well on the long-term picture. We cannot get stressed every weekend if we are seventh or if we are fourth or if we are on the podium this year. We need to be very pragmatic and very relaxed about our performance.”
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slowmo (@slowmo)
10th July 2023, 13:46
Of course you didn’t “try” to keep Lewis behind you Fernando after he blitzed past you and left you for dust.
Gary
10th July 2023, 14:13
I’m not sure what point you’re making here? That’s what Fernando said… Lewis was clearly faster so there was no point spending time trying to prevent him from getting past for a couple more laps?
slowmo (@slowmo)
10th July 2023, 18:27
Whenever he overtakes Hamilton in the faster car its a heroic battle he valiantly won, when he gets beat he cries about him not standing a chance. If you’ve got any class you don’t gloat in success and diminish others in defeat.
Gary
10th July 2023, 20:16
I don’t think he’s saying that. He notes Mercedes were faster, and even states he was happy to see Lewis on the podium.
Alonso certainly has a way of playing himself up, but in this case I don’t see any malice. He just didn’t feel Aston could compete.
Nick T.
10th July 2023, 21:26
Give us an example where he gloated over passing Hamilton. It’s sad people need to turn everything into their favorite driver vs their hated drivers.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
10th July 2023, 16:09
It’s only going to get worse with their significantly reduced aero/CFD allotment in H2.
PT (@pt)
10th July 2023, 18:07
I don’t understand why Fernando thinks he and the team should be “relaxed”. I can understand if he says it’s a track-specific thing. But to say that you need to be relaxed when your team is getting worse and worse is totally callous. Focusing on the “long-term picture” doesn’t mean that you should be unmoved by losing points and the massive advantage you had just a few races ago. With McLaren’s renaissance and Williams in an upward trajectory as well, Aston Martin has now more mid-field teams to battle to retain 3rd position in the constructors’ championship. I’d say it’s official panic time!
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th July 2023, 18:27
Perhaps this is him keeping it positive, because as you say, I can’t really imagine Alonso being content with where they currently are @pt; though it might just be he wants (needs, as agreed w. Stroll sr?) to keep that intern, but this is not a ‘I can get on the podium every race of the year’ car at the moment.
PT (@pt)
10th July 2023, 18:55
The big danger now, unless Hungaroring and tracks like that bring Aston Martin back to its competitive form, is that they could soon end up struggling to get into Q3. The pace of development is such in F1 these days.
slowmo (@slowmo)
10th July 2023, 18:29
I remember when BMW Sauber gave up on developing a successful car thinking they’d leap frog to the top the next year, that didn’t end well. Think it’s still a little early to panic though given the last 2 races have shown a lot of performance variation.
PT (@pt)
10th July 2023, 18:47
Let’s see. Hungaroring should give the answers.
Edvaldo
10th July 2023, 22:25
They should be worried. They were like 6th fastest team this race as even the Alpine guys were pushing him and just couldn’t find a way past, but were quicker.
Mercedes was clearly unhappy with their car and they were still much faster than Aston too. Hamilton passed him and vanished into the distance.
Of course the season could end now and they would still be happy with the massive leap they had in one year, but still, their updates seem to make the car slower.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th July 2023, 7:08
This is the problem with teams that aren’t used to making competitive, front running cars. They get a concept right, but are not able to fully understand the future potential and development path.
They might have invested in a lot of new resources for the team, but there’s a certain in-season development curve that Mercedes and Red Bull have, that other teams just do not possess. I can’t see Aston finishing ahead of Mercedes too often for the rest of the season.. and they’ll have to fight tooth and nail to keep Ferrari, Mclaren and Alpine behind them for the rest of the year.
I still think they are a long way off from every mounting a championship challenge.
melanos
11th July 2023, 23:16
People are too worried about what drivers say
Personally I do not give a FF about anything they may say or not
(with Kimi I’d make a exception, he was often delightful)
But drivers are there to drive, not to talk about it