Times are tough for Fernando Alonso And Aston Martin. After a decent start to the season, but far from last year’s performance standards, the Spanish driver is having a difficult series. In the last four Grands Prix, in fact, the double world champion was only able to enter the points zone on one occasion (sixth in Canada), and the Spanish Grand Prix was hardly satisfactory for the Silverstone stable.
Qualified 11th, Fernando Alonso fought in the anonymity of the peloton throughout the race, which he finished in a disappointing 12th place. It wasn’t much better for his teammate Lance Stroll14th on the starting grid, and who finished in the same place after a complicated event for the Aston Martin drivers.
Naturally frustrated, however, Alonso indicated after the race that the Silverstone team was in his place. “I’m a little disappointed because we didn’t score a point,” he commented. “We deserve not to score a point because we didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend.”
“In the race it was extremely difficult. When you slide so much in the corners you also destroy the tires. So there are two problems: you don’t have the pace and you have a lot of degradation. Overall, It’s been a very long race for us. We need to improve.”
Ninth in the drivers’ championship with 41 points, Fernando Alonso sees the gap widening with the top 8, and is now 29 points behind Lewis Hamilton, who precedes him in the standings, and who scored his first podium of the season this Sunday , with a third place in Catalonia. For his part, Lance Stroll is in 11th place, with only 17 units on the clock.
VIDEO – The summary of the Spanish GP
A frustrating situation for Alonso, who expects the Aston Martins to struggle in the next two races, in Austria and at Silverstone, where the lack of downforce from the AMR24s risks being problematic again.
“It’s frustrating, but we can’t do anything at the moment, so we start thinking about Austria from the checkered flag, and what we can do differently,” continues the latter. “But I think it will be complicated there too because there will be similar characteristics to Barcelona, with long corners. The weekend will still be difficult, like at Silverstone, no doubt.”
“We shouldn’t get too frustrated. It’s time to work harder, talk less and perform more. That’s what we want to do.”
Fernando Alonso was never able to approach the points zone in Spain.
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
The Aston Martin’s continued decline in form comes as the British team invests heavily in new facilities at its Silverstone headquarters, with a new wind tunnel set to be operational by the autumn.
Recently, Adrian Newey made a private – and initially secret – tour of the factory, while Lawrence Stroll made no secret of his desire to bring the English designer, from Red Bull early next year.
Fernando Alonso, who constitutes one of the pillars of the development plan of the Aston Martin team, and who extended for two more years within the team, is aware of the work that remains to be done to mix with the teams of point.
“I’m impatient, but we’ve evolved the car a lot and we haven’t gotten the results we expected,” he concludes. “It’s now about making sure that whatever car we bring to the track meets our expectations and we become better and better. Like I said, we have to work hard , improve ourselves with each race, but without talking or promising too much.”
