Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin had to work hard to find pace in its car at the Spanish Grand Prix in contrast to other venues this season.
Aston Martin was second in the constructors’ championship heading into the race in Barcelona, with Alonso having finished second to Max Verstappen in Monaco. The Spaniard qualified ninth and started eighth after picking up damage in qualifying, but despite a repaired car he could only gain one position to finish seventh, his worst result of 2023 so far.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“The track was not the best for us,” Alonso said. “From FP1 we were on a completely different set-up from what we predicted so we had to work a lot during the weekend to be happy with the car, which was kind of new for us. We were always happy from FP1 while here we had to work a little bit more.
“The upgrades from the other people I think they maybe didn’t show the full potential in Monaco, Miami, street circuits, so here we saw today that maybe they are a little bit stronger. But I’m not worried, there’s going to be better weekends and worse weekends, and we will have our opportunity in Canada.”
Lance Stroll led Alonso home to ensure Aston Martin picked up 14 points on Sunday, and Alonso says the return is still a solid one given the lack of performance compared to Mercedes.
“I think we didn’t have the pace so that was the biggest problem. It was not that we were unlucky or different strategies or anything like that. It’s that we were slow compared to the Mercedes, slow on the soft, slow on the hard and we just concentrated on the Alpines, AlphaTauris and kept up the pace with the Ferraris.
“At the end of the day we outscored the Ferraris as they only scored with Carlos (Sainz). We lost points with the Mercedes but they have done a better job this weekend so let’s try the next one.”