Fernando Alonso was eliminated in SQ1 during qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint. The Aston Martin F1 driver says his team’s problem in Brazil is a lack of pace, and he reveals there are some issues the team still needs to understand.
“We didn’t have the pace in qualifying. We made changes after free practice which we knew were crucial for the pace. But we have to concentrate on Sunday and not Saturday. Tomorrow during the Sprint, it is likely that we don’t score and for us, it will be like a free practice session.” Alonso indicates.
The two-time world champion explains that Aston Martin is not focusing at all on the Sprint, and he details the reasons: “The Sprint for us means nothing because only eight cars score points and if you are seventh or eighth you score one or two points.”
“The format doesn’t reward being fast on Friday and Saturday, for us it’s about focusing on Sunday. That’s how we view Sprint weekends, useless until Saturday after- noon, and that’s still the case here.”
Lance Stroll will be 19th at the start, and he too complains of a lack of pace on his AMR24: “It was very bumpy compared to previous years. But the big problem today is that we are not fast enough, we’ll see tomorrow.”
The Canadian refutes the very idea that Aston Martin could aim for a surprising result like in 2023: “We don’t have the pace we had last year when the team finished on the podium, so we’re not as confident as we were a year ago, but we’ll see what we can TO DO.”
Canada
