It hasn’t been an easy season for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. The team was a paddock favourite at the start of last season, but things have changed since then. They currently sit in fifth place in the F1 Constructors’ standings, well ahead of sixth-placed Visa Cash App RB F1 Team but nowhere near the pace of fourth-placed Mercedes.
And according to Alonso, the situation may not improve in Budapest this weekend.
Speaking at the FIA press conference on Thursday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso spoke about the team’s struggles, with the driver in particular pointing out how difficult it has been for the team to get the AMR24 into its ideal operating window.
“Yes, I think at the moment it’s quite difficult to get the car in the right window, we’re struggling to get the most out of the car’s potential. I think in Barcelona we had a bad start to the weekend and I would say we didn’t recover from a bad FP1,” Alonso said on Thursday. “In Austria we only had one free practice because it was a sprint weekend and again we weren’t able to optimise the package. At Silverstone it was a bit more of a normal weekend, it was a bit cooler and I think that helped the performance. Yes, it’s also a hot track and maybe similar to Barcelona in terms of corner speed and things like that, so it’s a challenge for us.”
Alonso then detailed his lack of confidence in the car this season, and how the instability of the AMR24 led him and the team to make some “risky” decisions.
“There are a few things, it’s not just one. As I said before, I think the car is difficult to drive and a bit unpredictable sometimes,” Alonso began. “So obviously it takes away confidence for the driver when you can’t push and you can’t trust the car to do the same in every corner, every lap. So this instability is not very good when you’re driving and I’ve struggled with it more this year than before. Yes, and when the margins are very narrow and it’s a close battle for one or two points, sometimes you take riskier decisions.
“Sometimes you gamble on strategy. Sometimes you take more risks than necessary with your starts or with your set-up choices. Instead of making minimal changes before qualifying, you change the whole car before qualifying. You take risks because you know that you can only get one or two points in FP3 with the current car.”
“So when you’re used to fighting for the top spots and you’re just going for one or two points, there’s always a consequence for what you do. Sometimes you risk everything to get in the top five and it’s not a big loss if you’re out of the points. We learned a lot of that this season and I think that was probably the biggest challenge for us, or for me.”
Alonso isn’t setting his sights too high when it comes to what he expects from this weekend and next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“It’s difficult, I think it depends a bit on the track and it’s very close in the middle of the field. I’d be happy if we could finish in the points in both races and it would be a good sign that the new package is delivering the results we expect it to,” Alonso said. “I think the top four teams are out of our reach at the moment, so, yeah, I think then we’ll just have to step up a little at a time and maybe the aim will be to finish in the points in both races.”
Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll are due to make their first attempt at the Budapest circuit later today with two practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
