Fernando Alonso admitted that he had sometimes lost motivation during 2024. The Aston Martin F1 driver pointed to the last two race hat-tricks, at the end of a very long and difficult season, and revealed that It was sometimes difficult for him to remain enthusiastic.
“There were a few races where maybe I wasn’t comfortable with the car, or I wasn’t super motivated” Alonso admitted. “When you're not super motivated or fighting for anything in the championship, you lack a bit of energy.”
“It's definitely not what we expected or what we predicted. We had high expectations after the 2023 campaign, and we started strong at the start of the year, but it seems like we haven't been able to improve the car throughout the season.”
“We were mid-table for most of 2024 and, at the end of the season, we were even a little worse than that. Overall, I think we were disappointed with certain phases of the campaign, but we finished fifth in the constructors' standings, which was the minimum required.”
The double world champion explains the difficulties encountered with the AMR24 last year: “It was a disconnect in the car. The front axle and the rear axle weren't really working at the same time in the same phase of the corner.”
“Coming into the turn, maybe one of the two axles was working. One of them was disconnecting in the middle of the turn. Maybe the other axle was doing the opposite. As you go around the lap and the different turns, and the two axles are doing different things and not talking to each other, the car is really difficult to drive.”
The Spaniard, however, has some reasons for satisfaction for the year that has just passed: “It's hard to call 2024 a bad year in my book. We've completed Factory Buildings 2 and 3 on the new campus, and we've hired Adrian Newey.”
He also performed significantly better than his teammate Lance Stroll, something he often boasted about in the past when it came to other teammates. But it's no longer something that keeps him in suspense today: “I'm happy, but I don't need these statistics to motivate me.”
“I think my self-confidence will always be there until the day I don't feel comfortable in the car. I feel slower than my teammates, or slower than I think is possible with the car. car. If that date comes, I'll probably throw up my hand and stop racing because I won't enjoy it anymore.”
