Tag: Aston Martin

Both Haas and Aston cars to start USGP from pit lane

Haas and Aston Martin have confirmed both teams will start both cars from the pit lane for today’s United States Grand Prix in order to change setups. Both teams have brought upgrade packages to Circuit of The Americas but Aston Martin’s Fernando …

Haas and Aston Martin have confirmed both teams will start both cars from the pit lane for today’s United States Grand Prix in order to change setups.

Both teams have brought upgrade packages to Circuit of The Americas but Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were eliminated in Q1 on Friday. While Haas fared better, with Kevin Magnussen qualifying 14th and Nico Hulkenberg 16th, both drivers struggled in race trim and slipped backwards in the sprint on Saturday.

Now with a picture of how the heavily updated Haas is behaving, the team has decided to make significant setup changes to both cars to learn more about the developments across a full race distance, rather than repeat Saturday’s issues.

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The same decision has been taken by Aston Martin, but the team will split approaches with Alonso reverting to the Qatar specification of car and Stroll staying with the new spec but making setup changes to ensure both are similarly configured for comparison.

Deputy technical director Eric Blandin says some initial simulation errors were to blame for the team struggling from the start of the weekend.

“In FP1 we [were hindered] because of a mistake on the sim,” Blandin said. “We put too much blanking on the front brakes so they effectively caught fire, that’s why we couldn’t run more than two laps with Lance in the morning and that really put us in the back foot for the whole weekend.

“In FP1 we couldn’t really optimize the setup of the car with the new package. As a consequence, I think the car is far from its optimum setup [for the race] with the new package.

“So we will start both cars from the pit lane, and we are effectively changing the setup. We think there is a lot more performance to come from the car, but we took the pragmatic approach to start both cars with, one with the Qatar spec, and one with the new package.”

The result is Daniel Ricciardo will be promoted to 14th on the grid ahead of Williams pair Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant in 15th and 16th respectively.

Aston Martin, Haas to both start from pitlane for 2023 United States Grand Prix

Four cars will be off the grid and starting from the pit lane during Sunday’s race.

The starting grid for the United States Grand Prix may feel a little empty on Sunday.

F1 journalist Chris Medland confirmed before the race that two teams — Aston Martin and Haas — will start from the pitlane in Austin. Medland reported that Haas is seeking to get a better setup after gathering data from Saturday’s sprint race and that Aston Martin looks to test a new upgrade spec, with driver Lance Stroll staying on the upgraded car and Fernando Alonso reverting back to older spec for the race.

On an ordinary race weekend, it’s unlikely these two teams would have taken drastic measures to test out their cars. Sprint race weekends, however, give teams an extra day of racing to monitor data like tire wear and race pace, so it’s likely that both these teams were unsatisfied with their race data and are using this grand prix as a means to collect it better regardless of where they finish.

Due to this change, AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo moves up to 14th place, Williams’ Alex Albon slots up to 15th and his teammate Logan Sargeant will be at the tail end of the grid in 16th. Magnussen and Hulkenberg will be first in the pit lane, while Alonso and Stroll will follow right behind them.

The United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas will take place at 3 p.m. EST.

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Aston Martin entering WEC Hypercar, IMSA GTP fields with Valkyrie LMH

Aston Martin is set to return to the top class of sportscar racing as a factory, with today’s announcement at AMR Technology Campus in the UK that the Valkyrie LMH program has been revived. At least one Valkyrie, entered by Aston Martin, will …

Aston Martin is set to return to the top class of sportscar racing as a factory, with today’s announcement at AMR Technology Campus in the UK that the Valkyrie LMH program has been revived.

At least one Valkyrie, entered by Aston Martin, will compete in the FIA WEC Hypercar and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class from 2025 onwards. This two-pronged approach means Aston Martin becomes the first manufacturer to commit an LMH-spec car to both championships.

This revitalised program, which was initially announced at Le Mans in 2019 and shelved in early 2020, and which RACER has teased since June, will receive support and backing from The Heart of Racing, a current Aston Martin customer team which currently competes in the GT ranks of both the WEC and IMSA.

“Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence,” said Lawrence Stroll, the executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda.

“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavors we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years. Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.

“In addition to our presence in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, Aston Martin’s return to the pinnacle of endurance racing will allow us to build a deeper connection with our customers and community, many of whom found their passion for the brand through our past success at Le Mans. And of course, the complex knowledge base we are building through our F1 team is data that Aston Martin Performance Technologies can harness to further enhance the capabilities of the Valkyrie race car at Le Mans, in WEC and IMSA.

“Just as the learnings we gain through endurance competition will feed directly into our road car programs, further improving the ultimate performance of our products. I would like to thank Gabe Newell and Heart of Racing for partnering with Aston Martin on this program, and I look forward to working with him and the team as we aim for success in the greatest endurance race of them all.”

To prepare the Valkyrie for competition, staff at the AMR Technology Campus, have started work on developing a competition prototype version of the car.

In order for it to compete against other LMH and LMDh cars around the world, the Valkyrie must fit within the predefined aerodynamic and power performance window in the regulations.

The race-optimized carbon-fiber chassis Valkyrie will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, which in standard form revs to 11,000rpm and develops over 1000bhp.

The power unit will be enhanced further to incorporate the critical Balance of Performance requirements of the Hypercar class, and developed to withstand the rigors of top level long-distance competition. It is set to be a significantly different unit to the original power unit planned when the program was originally revealed back in 2019.

As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track-car, the battery-electric hybrid system that features on the road-specification Valkyrie is absent from the race car. 

That decision means Aston Martin is set to be the only major OEM competing in Hypercar and GTP with a non-hybrid prototype. It will also be the only marque competing with a race car based on an existing production car.

Once homologated, The Heart of Racing team, founded in 2014 by American businessman and philanthropist Gabe Newell, will spearhead Aston Martin’s programs in both WEC and IMSA.

The Heart of Racing is a charity that raises money for the Seattle Children’s Cardiology Research Fund and has an association with Aston Martin dating back to 2020. Since then its race team has competed predominantly with the Vantage GT3 in IMSA’s GTD classes.

The team also made its 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with the Aston Martin Vantage GTE in June this year, finishing seventh, as part of its current WEC GTE Am effort under the Northwest AMR banner.

“It’s a privilege to be able to bring Aston Martin back to the top of endurance racing with the Heart of Racing,” said Ian James, the team principal of Heart of Racing.

“Our team has grown exponentially since we began racing with those famous wings at Daytona in 2020. We understand and are aligned with the ethos of the brand and we have developed our own systems and technologies to extract the maximum performance of the cars we compete with. Our understanding of Valkyrie is strong and we have worked closely with it through our customer activation programs for two years now.

“This HoR team has big ambitions in endurance racing and this is absolutely the right time for us to step into the top classes of WEC and IMSA and challenge for overall honors. This is not an easy target, but between our partners and the support of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, it is one we have all the tools and capabilities in place to hit the bullseye with.”

In addition to the announcement today that Aston Martin will return to the top class of international sportscar racing with the Valkyrie, it also confirmed its plans for GT racing going forward.

In 2024 Aston Martin will debut a brand new GT3 and GT4 Vantage, which is already out testing and is expected to compete globally next season, to help ensure Aston Martin has a customer GT presence in the FIA WEC, IMSA and in SRO’s World Challenge series going forward.

There is no imagery available of the new Vantage GT3 or GT4 as of yet, though RACER has been told that rather than being a mild refresh, both look substantially different to the current race cars.

The new cars will bring the curtain down on the current Vantage platform in GTE, GT3 and GT4 competition, which has amassed significant races wins and titles around the world.

This means that from 2025 onwards, Aston Martin will have a significant presence in Formula 1, Hypercar, GT3 and GT4 competition.

“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Aston Martin in endurance racing. As a manufacturer, Aston Martin has a consistent record of success at world championship level and, through the efforts of the Heart of Racing, also now in IMSA,” Adam Carter, the new head of endurance motorsport at Aston Martin said.

“Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sportscar racing and, together with our partners we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class.

“To be able to do this in cooperation with a proven championship-winning operation such as Heart of Racing ensures we have all we need to race from a competitive platform. It’s a fascinating program, given that this is the only hypercar in the class with direct synergies to its road car counterpart, but the Valkyrie concept was always intended to break through boundaries, and now we have the opportunity to show what it can do on a track. 

“By also confirming Aston Martin’s commitment to a new GT3 and GT4 challenger, we signal our intent to compete for victory at all levels of sportscar racing now and well into the future.” 

Stella using Aston drop-off as McLaren warning

Aston Martin’s slide from competitiveness at the front of the field is being used as a warning against complacency by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. Mike Krack’s team achieved a huge step forward over the winter to start this season as the …

Aston Martin’s slide from competitiveness at the front of the field is being used as a warning against complacency by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

Mike Krack’s team achieved a huge step forward over the winter to start this season as the nearest challenger to Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso scoring six podiums in the opening eight races. With 154 points scored in that time, Aston has only picked up 67 in total since, a run coinciding with McLaren’s recovery that has seen Stella’s team closing in quickly in the constructors’ standings.

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But Stella said he was “very mindful” of how McLaren’s form can fall away too.

“If anything we are trying to be as rigorous as possible from a development point of view to ensure that we are not short cutting any steps,” he said. “We don’t get too like ‘We need to develop faster’ and then you start to skip some methodical steps that we have applied so far.

“But I think everyone at McLaren – especially the technical leadership – are very aware that the pace of development is already fast and that is what we need to keep pursuing. And then we will see once we are in Bahrain next year who has been able to develop faster.

“We saw with Aston Martin that over the winter big steps are possible. Or like with McLaren that you can do it even during the season.”

Lando Norris has finished second in each of the past two races and Oscar Piastri backed that up with his first podium in Japan, but Stella believes there are no realistic venues this season where  McLaren can target beating Red Bull to victory.

“Still a step too far. In fairness, at the moment it looks like it’s Max (Verstappen) who is one step too far. There’s a variability of tracks left in the season, but none of these tracks has the Singapore characteristics.

“So while there could be some tracks where we could be competitive – I think Qatar should be a decent rack for us – I’m afraid that the characteristics we like are also the characteristics where Red Bull will be just outstanding. So we will have to be realistic that we will need some situations to happen to be able to make the final step.”

Whether such progress is possible over the winter before the 2024 season is another matter, with Stella saying the signs are promising for McLaren at this stage but he’s wary of other threats.

“At the moment we are encouraged by the development that we see on next year’s car. At the same time I guess that’s the same for everyone because right now some concepts are starting to be quite clear across the paddock, so we don’t know whether we are developing faster than other teams and above all we don’t know whether we are developing faster than Red Bull.

“But let’s not forget I think Mercedes realized what they need to work on and I suspect they are going to jump back quite strongly, so there’s no factual elements at this stage to say ‘this is the pecking order we will see next year’. I think things can evolve.”

Alonso hits out at ‘classic FOM radio’ portrayal of outbursts

Fernando Alonso believes Formula 1’s television coverage uses his team radio out of context, taking particular issue with its broadcast of his messages to Aston Martin during the Japanese Grand Prix. The Spaniard complained Aston Martin had “thrown …

Fernando Alonso believes Formula 1’s television coverage uses his team radio out of context, taking particular issue with its broadcast of his messages to Aston Martin during the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Spaniard complained Aston Martin had “thrown me to the lions” with an early first pit stop that left him unable to hold off the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, while he later told his engineer to come up with a different strategy as he was losing ground to Esteban Ocon on the straights. However, Alonso disputed that he was angry with his team, instead criticizing the broadcasting of his messages.

“Not angry — it’s the same, the classic thing, the classic FOM radio,” Alonso said. “Completely out of context, in a moment that I’m not sure exactly what other drivers can say when they are behind a car that is slower and on the straight they are pulling away even when you open the DRS.

“Maybe the other drivers say ‘I’m OK, I’m happy to be behind’ but I prefer to be motivated to overtake them on track. I was slower even with DRS open. I called for a different strategy, we stopped, we beat them — that’s the way we do it. We beat everyone on track even if the radio is the highlight.”

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The message after his first pit stop was one of the first times Alonso’s been publicly critical of Aston Martin since joining the team but he believes it was an error made because it didn’t react to how strong its race pace was quickly enough.

“I was upset because I think the first stop was too early. I think we were fast, faster than what we thought in terms of pace, I was behind the Ferraris, in front of (Lewis) Hamilton, with not too much pressure. Lap 12 we stopped, I think to cover (Yuki) Tsunoda, which was a little bit of a surprise there.

“After that stop, the race was very long from that moment onwards, and maybe that was a mistake, but easy to say now. I think arguably the final result will be P8 after the top teams — it didn’t change our race much.

“I didn’t argue, I knew that we stopped too early, and it’s not a problem. Sometimes we benefit, sometimes there is a thing that we can learn. As I said the final result doesn’t change probably.

“I think we had two hard tires and Ferrari only one, so we tried to anticipate the first stop to force them to go early. I understand the strategy, there’s nothing wrong with it, (but) when you have a very slow car in the straight you are in parts of the race where you lose momentum. It happened but I’m fine.”

Although contradicting himself slightly, Alonso said the competitiveness of the car on Sunday was unexpected as he felt he could have held on to a top-six result after another impressive start moved him forwards at Suzuka.

“I think the tires helped — off the line the soft tire gives you a bit extra. A little bit of chaos in Turn 2 with Checo (Perez) and Hamilton, capitalized on those moves, that’s why when we stopped in that privileged position of P6 it felt a little bit strange; but the positive is that the pace of the car was surprisingly good.

“I didn’t expect to be as fast as Ferrari and Mercedes, to be honest. With a more optimized strategy we could have maybe finished P6, P7, and it didn’t look that way after qualifying, so definitely Sunday was very strong for us and we need to understand why.”

Hawkins becomes first woman in five years to test a modern F1 car

Aston Martin driver ambassador Jessica Hawkins has become the first woman to test a Formula 1 car since 2018 after a run in Budapest. Hawkins joined Aston Martin in 2021 and started simulator preparations last year ahead of a potential testing …

Aston Martin driver ambassador Jessica Hawkins has become the first woman to test a Formula 1 car since 2018 after a run in Budapest.

Hawkins joined Aston Martin in 2021 and started simulator preparations last year ahead of a potential testing opportunity, which came to fruition at the Hungaroring last Thursday. Sharing the team’s 2021 car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, Hawkins completed 26 laps on a day interrupted by heavy rain, with the 28-year-old hoping it provides an example to others.

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“I want to say a big thank you to everyone at AMF1 team for having the trust in me, believing in me, and for giving me this opportunity,” Hawkins said. “It’s taken me every bit of blood, sweat and tears to get here. When I first heard it might be a possibility, I could hardly believe it. I’ve had to keep it secret for months now — which was pretty hard! It’s been absolutely worth it and it’s given me really valuable insight.

“Nothing will compare to the acceleration and braking of a Formula 1 car and, having looked at the data, I’m really proud of my performance. Getting to drive the AMR21 has been a dream come true for me and one I’ve been ready to fulfill for a long time. I’ll keep pushing for more and, in the process, I want to inspire other women and let them know they should follow their dream no matter what it is.”

Aston Martin’s evolution program director Robert Sattler explains just how difficult conditions were for Hawkins’ debut in Hungary, and suggests another outing could be on the cards.

Hawkins became the first female to test a modern F1 car since Tatiana Calderon ran for Sauber in 2018. Aston Martin F1 Team photo

“Jessica excelled in her first F1 test,” Sattler said. “After the installation lap we had a small delay as the circuit was hit by heavy rain. That resulted in a green track and on her first proper run there were still some damp patches in a few corners. Jessica progressively built up speed on a tricky track while managing flawlessly the complexity of the AMR21 car.

“Her feedback was precise and correlated with our data. After three runs, the track had dried and she was already matching the reference lap speeds. Overall, Jessica executed an excellent test program with a very professional attitude and we hope to see her in the car again soon.”

Team principal Mike Krack says Hawkins’ approach to her chances in the simulator are what convinced Aston Martin to pursue a testing opportunity.

“This is a special moment for both AMF1 and for Jessica, who is an important member of our driver squad,” Krack said. “We were really impressed by Jessica’s preparation for the test — she worked incredibly hard with our simulator team and that made it an easy decision to put her in the AMR21. Jessica approached the opportunity with great maturity; she was up to speed quickly and found a nice rhythm.

“This has been a hugely significant moment in Jessica’s journey with AMF1 Team and I am pleased we could give her this next step in her development journey by testing a modern Formula 1 car.”

Stroll says racing in Singapore would have delayed recovery from near-50G impact

Lance Stroll says he suffered an impact of nearly 50G in qualifying in Singapore and racing the following day would have delayed his recovery for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Aston Martin and Stroll took the joint decision to withdraw Stroll …

Lance Stroll says he suffered an impact of nearly 50G in qualifying in Singapore and racing the following day would have delayed his recovery for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Aston Martin and Stroll took the joint decision to withdraw Stroll from last weekend’s race after his heavy crash on Saturday, despite the Canadian passing the required tests. With the team struggling as Fernando Alonso finished outside the points, Stroll doesn’t view it as a justifiable absence on performance terms but says it was the right decision to be fully fit for Suzuka.

“I’m much better than I was on Sunday!” Stroll said Thursday at Suzuka. “I’m feeling OK now.

“I was fine (in that) I was healthy to race but I wasn’t physically feeling good enough to do Singapore, which is the hardest race of the year. I felt it creeping up on me on Saturday night and I knew it wasn’t going to be fun waking up on Sunday morning.

“For me it’s always an opportunity to race on Sunday and try to score some points. We saw drivers start pretty far back on Sunday and manage to climb through the field and score points. You never know what happens. If I had felt fine and really good I would have raced but I really didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. I really think it would have delayed my recovery to come here and feel 100%.”

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Stroll also says he has no complaints over the curbs at the final corner where he crashed, saying street tracks should punish mistakes rather than be made easier for drivers.

“I mean, if it was maybe a bit flatter it could prevent something like that happening, but I think that’s also the nature of street circuits,” he said. “Singapore, Monaco, Baku, those kind of places, if there wasn’t a wall there then it would be like all the other tracks and I think that’s kind of the nice challenge about street circuits — when you do push a little bit too hard the track bites back.

“For every experience you learn from it and then put it behind you and full focus on the next weekend. That’s how I’m looking at the whole thing. It was definitely frustrating to finish the weekend like that, there was a lot more potential in the car and the weekend, but that was how it ended and now I’m fully focused and looking forward to Suzuka.”

Despite feeling fit to race in Japan, Stroll is also wary that Suzuka might not suit Aston Martin as it becomes increasingly difficult to identify a pecking order before each race weekend.

“It’s always tricky to answer this question — it’s such a tight field now and I think we’re a bit on the draggy side,” noted the Canadian. “Here, there’s still a lot of straights so it is important to be efficient. I’m not sure how our pace will be in Sector 1 in the high-speed corners, but I think if we manage to get the car well balanced, set up properly and we’re not too draggy, then we’ll have a good weekend.

“But like I said, it’s really tough to answer those questions because I don’t think it’s as clear about where you would be on certain tracks as it was in previous years, because it feels just so tight now. We see a lot of teams bounce back and forward (from) where they might have been last weekend and then on a different kind of track, the situation changes a lot, so I hope we can be very competitive.”

Amid Aston Martin turnaround, pressure mounting on Stroll

Aston Martin is in danger of facing a problem that Ferrari knows all too well. In 2022, the two wins in the opening three races for Charles Leclerc – coupled with his second place in Jeddah – had him leading the championship comfortably and …

Aston Martin is in danger of facing a problem that Ferrari knows all too well.

In 2022, the two wins in the opening three races for Charles Leclerc — coupled with his second place in Jeddah — had him leading the championship comfortably and expectations were raised enormously.

By mid-season, any title hopes had all but gone, and by the end of the campaign second pace in the constructors’ championship was deemed reason enough to replace Mattia Binotto with Fred Vasseur as team principal. Yet the final standings showed a clear step forward from one season to the next, and overall progress.

Aston Martin is in the same position, having started the year as Red Bull’s closest challenger and with Fernando Alonso in typically metronomic form, scoring six podiums in the first eight races. But much like Ferrari last year, that strong start has been slowly erased by improvements from rival teams that have seen Aston slip to fourth in the constructors’ standings and with McLaren closing in.

That the gap to McLaren is still 78 points shouldn’t be overlooked — a sign of how far apart the two teams were early on — but it’s hard to shake the feeling of momentum and the fact that Andrea Stella’s team has closed in by 59 points in the seven races since introducing a major update in Austria is pretty remarkable.

If the pair end the season closely matched on points, it means they had similar results, but just because one has scored them later in the year than the other, the impression of each team is very different.

And the same could be said about one of the drivers, following Lance Stroll’s huge accident in qualifying in Singapore.

Stroll sat out Sunday’s race on account of feeling sore after the big impact at the final corner in Q1, a crash that had multiple triggers. Logan Sargeant’s impeding earlier in the session meant Stroll needed a final lap to try and get through, and the traffic chaos at the end of the session left him starting his crucial attempt within two seconds of Pierre Gasly ahead.

From there, an improvement was always going to be tough, but in a last-ditch Hail Mary he tried to carry too much speed in the final sector and the outcome was almost inevitable.

That withdrawal was the first time Stroll had missed a race since 2020, despite the pre-season injuries he sustained in a cycling crash just a few weeks before the Bahrain Grand Prix. Two fractured wrists and a fractured toe didn’t stop Stroll driving through the pain barrier to race and score points, the Canadian later saying he knew what a good car the team had and he wanted to use it.

Singapore was already looking like a tough weekend before that crash, and then starting at the back feeling less than 100% on a track that is so tough to overtake on was unlikely to yield much of a return. But Stroll was not present at all on Sunday, not even to personally thank his mechanics for the huge effort overnight to get the car into a position where it would have been ready to race if needed.

It’s only a minor thing — and a slight surprise given how highly some team members speak of Stroll’s work ethic back at the factory — but it’s the sort of touch that Stroll really could do with as critics will always be quick to pounce on his errors. And perhaps in the reverse of what you’d expect given his pre-season challenges, there have been occasions to do so with increasing rather than decreasing regularity.

Part of that is surely to do with the Aston Martin being less competitive than it was at the start of the season, with even Alonso only picking up one podium in the past seven rounds. But across that span, Stroll has scored a total of 10 points, while Alonso’s return is 53.

Alonso is pretty much as tough a benchmark as Stroll could have, and missing pre-season and not feeling he was fully fit until Monaco could perhaps have excused a few of the challenging weekends that he endured — with team-related errors not helping his cause in Miami. But each time it appears the 24-year-old might be turning a corner, he’s seemed to take two steps back this season.

A strong Barcelona compared to Alonso was then followed by an off weekend at his home race in Montreal, then a strong run in qualifying and the sprint in Austria didn’t carry through to a messy Silverstone. After that, solid enough weekends where Aston was lacking overall pace in Hungary and Belgium preceded a scoreless run since the summer break.

Not totally unlike pre-season, Stroll could really do with a riposte when he returns to the car this weekend. The issues of earlier in the year should have meant he was getting stronger as the year went on, and at some point if there are recurring outside factors that are hampering opportunities to maximize a result then the common denominator needs to be looked at.

I’ve regularly said that at 24, Stroll still has time on his side. While 136 starts provide a serious amount of experience to fall back on already at that age, it doesn’t seem to be helping him deliver the level of consistency he now needs.

Stroll’s share of Aston Martin’s points haul needs to climb if the team is to take the constructors’ fight to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images

Aston Martin absolutely needs more from Stroll to be able to compete against Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren given the strength of their respective partnerships. The biggest points gap between teammates across those three teams is Lando Norris (70% of total points scored) and Oscar Piastri (30%). At Aston Martin, that balance sits at 78-22% in favor of Alonso.

Only at Williams is there a greater disparity, and rookie Logan Sargeant is certainly coming under scrutiny for his future for not yet contributing to the team’s points total. Stroll has been used to criticism his entire career due to the added protection his father’s F1 investment provides, but that protection surely has a limit.

When I spoke to Stroll at Spa he insisted he doesn’t pay attention to social media or outside comments, and to be fair he doesn’t have to. But at the same time he made it clear that as a driver he was determined to improve his form and reduce the gap to Alonso, and the trend for the season does not match that target.

Reversing the momentum is as important for Stroll as it is for Aston Martin itself, otherwise the external views and perceptions become more likely to be widely held internally, too.

Aston Martin looks to rebound from first scoreless weekend of ’23

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack insists the team will not be affected by its first scoreless weekend of the Formula 1 season in Singapore. Fernando Alonso had scored points in every race so far this year up to Singapore, where a combination …

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack insists the team will not be affected by its first scoreless weekend of the Formula 1 season in Singapore.

Fernando Alonso had scored points in every race so far this year up to Singapore, where a combination of car struggles and a pit stop issue limited him to 15th place, while Lance Stroll was withdrawn from the event following his crash in qualifying. With only Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton left as those who have scored in each grand prix, Krack (pictured second from right, above) says it’s not an interruption that will have a major impact on the team.

“We had a run of scoring every race. Like Max’s series, this one stopped (in Singapore), but this will not affect us now as a big hit or whatever,” Krack said. “We are looking forward to Japan and there are a lot of races to come still, so we are not too bothered. Obviously it is not nice, but it is not a drama.”

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Aston’s struggles came in a race where Red Bull was also out of the picture for victory as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz headed home McLaren’s Lando Norris, but Krack believes there will be more chances for other teams to pick up wins.

“We always said we have to be there when the day comes. We were not in a position to do it, so the victory goes to someone else, and this is what we have to acknowledge,” he said. “They were there, and we need to be there when the next opportunity comes.

“I’m sure there will be opportunities — you always have weather and other things — so I think we are positive. We try to do the best for the races to come and see where we end up.”

While not giving up on second place in the constructors’ championship, Krack says he’s also aware of McLaren’s threat in the standings with four teams — also including Mercedes and Ferrari — in a close fight.

“Yeah, there was a big swing in Zandvoort for once for us; there was now a big swing in their favor. I think the fight will go on with all these teams all along the season. So far we have seen that it’s just one team not being affected by anything. (In Singapore) we have seen that everybody can have ups and downs. I think it will be interesting until the end.

“There are still some things to come over the next races, and at the same time develop the new car.”

Alonso sees Aston changes paying off ahead of break

Fernando Alonso attributes his fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix to work Aston Martin has been doing to understand a recent dip in competitiveness. Aston Martin was the standout story of the opening rounds as it emerged as the second-fastest …

Fernando Alonso attributes his fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix to work Aston Martin has been doing to understand a recent dip in competitiveness.

Aston Martin was the standout story of the opening rounds as it emerged as the second-fastest team to Red Bull and Alonso picked up six podiums in the first eight races. Since Canada, however, Alonso has failed to finish higher than fifth and results of seventh at Silverstone and ninth in Hungary and led to the impression Aston was slipping back before a strong climb to fifth again in Spa.

“I felt definitely more competitive than the last few events,” Alonso said. “It was not an easy weekend to go into the rhythm, and the wet qualifying and track changing all the time. So not much experience in the dry.

“I was lucky at the start. Before Eau Rouge I made a few places there, and I was a little bit worried if we will fall back, you know, and the pace will not be good enough to keep that position. But it was good — the car felt fast. We kept one Mercedes behind, one McLaren behind. So, we were in the mix. And that’s good news before the summer break.

“The car felt fast, the guys did an incredible job again on the strategy, also on the pit stops. We made a few places also (in the sprint), even if we didn’t finish the race. And yeah, I think the car felt more normal. So we had few thoughts after Hungary and after Silverstone. So the team was making few setup changes also to the car, and I think it paid off. The car felt more normal, more competitive. So I’m happy — a good boost for summer.”

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Team principal Mike Krack believes Aston Martin has found a solution to some of the issues it has been facing since significantly upgrading its car, and praised the team for repairing damage at Spa to allow the engineers to get a better understanding.

“The data looked positive from what we have seen so far,” Krack said. “Obviously with not so many dry laps before the race this is provisional — we need to dig deep now to see where we have ended up but we looked a bit more competitive than recently.

“I think we have really done 24/7 analysis trying to understand and also trying to do something about it. Obviously in the short time between Budapest and (Spa) there is not so much that you could do, but credit that we managed to do something.

“Everybody was really flat out, and also after the offs (on Saturday) to prepare the parts again, so a great credit to everybody involved. That was really, really nice, to allow us to look at this and try to improve the car for the next race.”

Krack says the main difference in the Belgium result was the fact that Alonso had enough pace to ensure he did not lose positions that he had gained at the start.

“That obviously has been key to make the steps to the front, but Fernando said as well that lately we also made some steps at the beginning and then dropped back in the order, so he said he was not in the trap to fall back again. He gained a position at the beginning and we could hold it — it was not that there was a major danger coming from the back, and this is the difference compared to the previous races.”