Alonso says 2024 was 'not a bad year'

At the dawn of the 2025 season, drivers and teams are taking stock of the past year in order to learn as much as possible. Thus, Fernando Alonso returned to his team's 2024 campaign, which quickly took on the appearance of a crossroads with a dynamic following that of the second part of 2023.

“It was difficult, but I still really enjoyed this year, especially at the beginning, obviously, when the car was a little faster.”he declared at the end of the campaign. “But even now, with the difficulties we sometimes encounter, we still try to analyze and learn lessons for the car from [2025] and for the future. And yes, when you start the season strong and end it with a little more difficulty, you feel like you've had an average season. And when you do the opposite… It’s a very different feeling when you finish at a higher level.”

“But the points are counted after Abu Dhabi. I think we have a good chance of finishing fifth in the constructors' championship [Aston Martin s’est en effet classée cinquième du championnat des équipes, ndlr.]which is not our objective. But I have the feeling that a lot of teams have done better than Aston Martin this year and they are far behind us. Like I said, it depends on whether you start strong or finish poorly or vice versa. We are not where we want to be. But there are only four teams happier than us, not nine.”

The most surprising in this situation remains the difference in performance with 2023, where Aston Martin showed itself to be very competitive, especially at the start of the season when Alonso almost snatched pole position from Max Verstappen at the Monaco Grand Prix, before finally taking second place in the race; in a period totally dominated by the Dutch. The Spaniard had scored eight podiums in total, including six in the first eight Grands Prix of the season. He finished the year with 206 points and a fourth place in the drivers' championship.

Aston Martin concluded its 2023 campaign in fifth position after ending the season a little further behind, caught and overtaken by McLaren which began its climb to the top. However, the team scored 280 points that year, compared to 94 in 2024.

In addition, two years ago, the British team inaugurated certain major infrastructures, such as its brand new Silverstone factory, in this desire to want to catch up with the top teams. An ambition which for the moment seems thwarted in the face of this rather negative dynamic. Have the successes of early 2023 created too many expectations in relation to the team's real capabilities?

“No, I don’t think the expectations were too high”retorted Alonso. “We had a very strong campaign in 2023, and people expected us to fight for bigger things, or at least to be at the level we were at the start of this year. And that's normal , that’s Formula 1 and that’s also where we want to be.”

“We did not succeed in the second part of the year [2024]. We are aware of this. But we are not ashamed of it. We are working to fight for the championship in the future, and perhaps we did not bring to the track what we thought we had in store in this second part of the season. But at the same time we have completed some installations at Silverstone, with factory buildings 2 and 3, the wind tunnel will soon be operational as well. And we have Adrian Newey on board now. It wasn’t a bad year 2024.”

Returning from the summer break, Alonso declared that he preferred to use the second half of 2024 to lay good foundations for 2025. When it came time to take stock, the Spaniard estimated that the difficulties encountered in this second part season had at least allowed the team to acquire more knowledge to start the upcoming campaign well.

“There were ups and downs for everyone”he said. “It's hard to be sure, but I think we haven't managed to really improve the car throughout the season. So we started off pretty strong, but we're now in a position where we have to struggling to get through Q3 a few times.”

“But, at the same time, all these difficulties probably teach us a lot of lessons, which we will apply to next year's car. And that is probably the most positive aspect of the second part of the year. You know, even though we failed to make the car perform, I think we have a good understanding of what we are struggling with at the moment. So this will apply in 2025.

The AMR24 has apparently had difficulty evolving in the right direction. Could Aston Martin return to a specification more like the 2023 single-seater? “I don’t know much”Alonso replied. “I don’t know exactly what the features of the car will be.”

“As I said before, all the lessons we learned from this year, I think we've taken them well into next year's project. So all the things we didn't get right this year, I think they will be better next year I don't think the car will be based on 2023. I think it's a completely new project for 2025 which I hope will give better results. results than the current car.”

“But we are aware of the gap that separates us from the top four teams. They are a bit on another planet [Aston Martin accusait un retard de plus de 370 points avec la quatrième équipe, Mercedes, ndlr]. So, I think there is a lot of work to do, but there are still four months or three and a half months before the first race and the first real test [de 2025].”

“So I think we have plenty of time and we have the right people. We have the right facilities and we have learned from this year. So I am confident to start the season strong and have a good campaign 2025.”