Fernando Alonso is hopeful Aston Martin will be closer to Max Verstappen over a race distance at the Canadian Grand Prix courtesy of its latest upgrades. Aston brought a new floor and engine cover to Montreal, and Alonso will start alongside …
Fernando Alonso is hopeful Aston Martin will be closer to Max Verstappen over a race distance at the Canadian Grand Prix courtesy of its latest upgrades.
Aston brought a new floor and engine cover to Montreal, and Alonso will start alongside Verstappen on the front row after Nico Hulkenberg was penalized for a red flag infringement. Given the update to the car, Alonso feels challenging Verstappen for victory is a tall order but he is targeting a smaller deficit over a race distance.
“I think on the new parts, it’s early days, they’re still under evaluation,” Alonso said. “And I think we still need to optimize the setup of the car a little bit now with the new package, which is what we found yesterday. So I think in Austria or Silverstone, we will extract the maximum of it. Yesterday was too short an FP2.
“But happy; the new parts were good and delivering what we were expecting, so that’s another very good sign. And let’s see tomorrow in a dry race if we can challenge Max a little bit. I don’t think that we are at that level, that’s for sure, but in a state of being 20s behind or 30s behind, hopefully we are a little bit closer.
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“I think tomorrow we have a chance to put some pressure. I think they had very easy wins until now and hopefully tomorrow they have to push a little bit more … Two seconds behind them; not 20s behind them.”
Despite avoiding the pitfalls of such a tricky qualifying session that saw the likes of Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez drop out in Q2, Alonso felt luck wasn’t on his side to be prevented from beating Hulkenberg’s time before the Haas driver was hit with a grid penalty.
“We’ve been unlucky generally with the red flags today. In Q1 also, I think it was 1s to see the line and then the red flag came just in that moment. And in Q3, it was I think 4s before crossing the line to be on the first row. But we take it.
“I’m extremely happy because it was very complex qualifying to execute and you need constant communication with the team. Sometimes you feel things in the car but then on TV, or on the pit lane, there are different ideas, so you need that feedback — engineer-driver. It was a difficult day but we have a strong chance tomorrow to score many points, so I’m happy.”
A rare qualifying error from Fernando Alonso leaves the Aston Martin driver starting from ninth on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after damaging his car. Running wide out of the final corner in Q1 and bouncing through the gravel, Alonso …
A rare qualifying error from Fernando Alonso leaves the Aston Martin driver starting from ninth on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after damaging his car.
Running wide out of the final corner in Q1 and bouncing through the gravel, Alonso suffering damage to the floor that he had to carry for the rest of the session. The Spaniard said it was a frustrating error as he wasn’t even on a flying lap at the time — having just changed a setting on the steering wheel — and took full responsibility.
“Yeah, Q1 probably did compromise everything today,” Alonso said. “I did a mistake — I went on the damp part of the circuit, I guess, in the last corner as I lost the car and it was very costly as that gravel completely destroyed the floor.
“It hurts even more because it was the out lap — I was not even pushing…so (disappointed) with my performance today, so hopefully I can do a better Sunday.”
Alonso says he could feel the loss of downforce for the rest of the session but is still confident he can move forward from ninth place in the race.
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“The car was moving…but you never know if it’s just the wind or track conditions. It was a strange qualifying to see (Charles) Leclerc out of Q1 and (Sergio) Perez, (George) Russell out of Q2. We were struggling as well; it was tricky for everyone. But in my case it was just my mistake in the out lap of Q1, so that compromises everything.
“But the race is tomorrow. We are competitive even with some damage on the floor, so if you put everything together for tomorrow, still optimistic we can score many points.”
With Carlos Sainz second and Lando Norris third on the grid behind Max Verstappen, Alonso believes he could have secured a spot on the front row even with the damage he had sustained.
“P2. Probably even with the floor as it was, because on the Q3 lap I was coming for a (1m)12.7s to Turn 10, but again I ran wide into the damp part in Turn 10 on the outside, so when I saw now that 12.7s is P2 and P3 I was surprised. But that’s why I’m optimistic for tomorrow, as the car seems to have a lot of pace.”
Fernando Alonso views second place on the grid at the Monaco Grand Prix as job done after admitting he took risks “to an uncomfortable level” chasing pole position. Aston Martin has been Red Bull’s nearest challenger this season and Monaco’s track …
Fernando Alonso views second place on the grid at the Monaco Grand Prix as job done after admitting he took risks “to an uncomfortable level” chasing pole position.
Aston Martin has been Red Bull’s nearest challenger this season and Monaco’s track layout was expected to bring the two teams closer together in qualifying trim, opening up the possibility to fight for pole. That proved true as the session progressed, with Alonso on provisional pole before a stunning final sector from Max Verstappen pipped the Spaniard, who was content with his result.
“You never know here in Monaco — anything can happen, always a couple of incidents, yellows, red flags; better to put a lap on the board and be at the front,” Alonso said. “When they told me I was P1 with just (Yuki) Tsunoda and Max completing the laps I knew the possibility was there to be P2, but I think even if it feels very close to the pole position we have to be happy.
“We came here with some concerns about our performance on Saturdays. We seem very good on Sundays, and taking care of the tires — degradation — is good on our car, but we struggle a bit on street circuits to put the temperature in to hit the lap in Q3, but we are starting the first row of the grid in Monaco so I think it’s job done today.
“I think both laps in Q3 we were increasing the level of risk to an uncomfortable level. I think both laps were a little bit over the limit sometimes but everything went fine. The last sector seems our weakest part of the circuit. Already in FP3 we were eighth quickest I think there, so maybe there is something going on there we need to analyze a bit; maybe going into Singapore is the next opportunity we have.”
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On previous occasions when he has started on the front row — Miami comes to mind — Alonso has stated his aim to take the lead at the start and head the field for a spell, but given the risks that come with trying to overtake in Monaco he says cleanly executing the race is his main target.
“I think I risked enough today! So tomorrow we will try to finish the race to see the checkered flag, try to take the maximum points. If there is a normal Monaco race we should be on the podium, more or less secure in the positions we see here in this moment and if there is an opportunity or a mechanical failure for Max, or bad pit stop or lucky strategy, we will take it.
“But…coming from our side, we risk a little bit more or less and then we will have a chance to win. There’s no way you will overtake anyone. It’s just avoiding a mistake, which sounds a boring race from Sundays in Monaco. From the outside (it) looks easy, but it is still extremely difficult to keep he car in good shape for the 78 laps.”
Fernando Alonso says he’s starting to get frustrated to not be able to finish higher than third place after another Red Bull one-two in the Miami Grand Prix. Max Verstappen beat teammate Sergio Perez to victory after starting ninth in Florida, …
Fernando Alonso says he’s starting to get frustrated to not be able to finish higher than third place after another Red Bull one-two in the Miami Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen beat teammate Sergio Perez to victory after starting ninth in Florida, climbing through with ease before overtaking Perez in the late going. Alonso was over 20s adrift in third place as he picked up his fourth P3 in five races this season, and when it was put to him that it could be becoming frustrating to not secure a top-two result he replied: “It is, it is.
“Obviously we want to be one step higher on the podium in P2 and eventually one day have an opportunity to win a race but at the moment it didn’t happen because Red Bull is better than us — (they’re) stronger, (they’re) faster and reliability has been always outstanding for them as well, finishing both cars in every race. So if one day there is a crack there, if there is an opportunity, we need to make sure we are in that position and not making any mistakes at any point in the weekend.”
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After dancing briefly on the podium, Alonso says Sunday’s run to third was an uneventful one but he’s proud of the consistency Aston Martin is showing.
“I did enjoy (the podium). Obviously the race…for us it was a little bit of a lonely race, nothing really to do in front of us with the Red Bulls but behind us not much pressure. So at the end, P3, and we take this good result for us and a fourth podium in five races. We only missed Baku by 0.8s so I think it’s a good moment so far.”
With many teams set to bring new parts to the start of the European season, the Spaniard says he’s still hopeful Aston Martin can keep its main rivals at bay.
“Let’s see. I think in Imola it’s going to be an interesting fight again. As you said, a lot of teams will bring upgrades to the car — Mercedes, probably Ferrari as well — and we will try to keep finishing in front of them on Sunday.”
Two races into the 2023 Formula 1 season, and the general consensus would have you believe it’s a two-horse race for the drivers’ championship. And that race is between two Red Bull drivers where there is a clear favorite. But surely, surely, we …
Two races into the 2023 Formula 1 season, and the general consensus would have you believe it’s a two-horse race for the drivers’ championship. And that race is between two Red Bull drivers where there is a clear favorite.
But surely, surely, we can’t be ruling out all 18 on the rest of the grid when there are still 21 races to go, even with Red Bull’s early superiority?
Especially not when the closest challenger of those 18 so far is a double world champion, who has history of muscling in on title fights he really has no right to.
2012 was one of Fernando Alonso’s most impressive seasons. In fact, when it comes to maximizing race results, it was one of the most complete seasons I can recall watching. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
After a win in the second round in Malaysia — amid seven different winners in the first seven races — came a sign of Red Bull’s potential at race four in Bahrain. Sebastian Vettel won from pole, with Alonso strategically not setting a Q3 time to start ninth with a free choice of tires. Despite a great start that promoted him to fifth by Turn 1, he’d still finish over 57 seconds behind the winner in a 57-lap race.
Alonso carried the Ferrari F2012 to dramatic heights. Rainer Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images
Given the fact that was Vettel’s only victory in the first 13 races (and one of only three Red Bull had in that time), it was clearly a very different year, but amid such up-and-down performances Alonso was remarkably consistent, particularly in the final eight rounds where he retired once — in Japan when Vettel was in the middle of four consecutive wins — but finished on the podium in the other seven.
And it’s that kind of consistency that could keep him in the frame when it comes to this season.
Fast forward two years to the huge dominance enjoyed by Mercedes in 2014, and Daniel Ricciardo didn’t even score in the opening two rounds due to a disqualification and retirement. As he regularly moved into the position of best of the rest, round seven brought a first win, and either side of the summer break back-to-back victories meant he was just 35 points behind Lewis Hamilton at the time.
Mercedes’ reliability issues, along with Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fighting each, other opened the door for Ricciardo to remain loosely in touch, and that was even without anywhere near the same level of consistency that Alonso showed in 2012 or has started this year with. It was only with two rounds remaining (one of which was worth double points, admittedly) that Ricciardo was mathematically eliminated from title contention.
Given the strong start Alonso has shown, at this stage it’s not difficult to imagine him being the closest challenger to the Red Bull drivers most often. But the bit that he’s really going to have to hope for is Sergio Perez maintaining strong form in the early part of the year to take a few wins off Max Verstappen.
This could look very silly come Sunday night given Verstappen’s quality, but Perez did appear to have the ability to match his teammate in the second half of the race in Saudi Arabia, and certainly utilized the car at his disposal impressively in order to take advantage of the Dutchman’s reliability issues.
If Perez can do that on just a few more occasions in the first half of the year and ensure Verstappen is in at least a loose battle with his teammate, but also unable to extend an enormous margin over Alonso, then as the season progresses we could see another driver getting the chance to keep the defending champion on his toes.
If Perez can stay on an even keel with Verstappen, it could, just maybe, leave a lane open for Alonso in the title race. Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Aston Martin does have the potential to move closer to Red Bull as the year goes on. As hinted at when analyzing Alonso’s move in pre-season, the 2023 Aston is so radically different from its predecessor that it should be unlocking more and more performance from it with each passing race, but also has a lot of room for development.
Even if we completely disregard the penalty Red Bull received for breaching the cost cap last year, the difference in aerodynamic testing time between last year’s constructors’ championship-winning team and a seventh-placed Aston is some 30%, and it’s not like Mike Krack’s team is lacking for resources to capitalize on that.
Unlike the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes — both of who are talking about having to solve weaknesses and in the latter’s case make radical changes to its car design — Aston Martin appears to be stable and happy with the car it has delivered. It still only just has an edge on the aforementioned teams but it came from so far back that it represents a major step forward and gives the team confidence in its development directions.
Red Bull will still improve its car too, but the ingredients are there at least for Alonso and Aston Martin to remain the closest threat, and chip away at that performance advantage that Verstappen and Perez currently enjoy.
I know, a lot has to come together to make that a reality, but there’s growing confidence in what Aston Martin is doing with its car and its ability to keep moving forward from this position, as it evolves into a team that is wanting for nothing compared to the established top three.
Staying ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes will obviously be crucial, because if Alonso isn’t able to limit the damage at the majority of rounds until that gap closes then it’s going to be an even more unlikely challenge to become any sort of factor in the title race.
But in these early stages, while Alonso keeps putting himself in a position to pick up the podium spot behind Verstappen and Perez, he will remain just close enough to be on Red Bull’s radar. He’s done it before, after all.
It might be premature to describe him as a title contender while everything above only remains “potential,” but it would be premature to write him off, too.
