F1 | Alonso ninth: “Back to reality after a good qualifying”

Sixth on the grid, ninth under the checkered flag. In a very tight qualifying session, despite what the final time classification said, Fernando Alonso managed to place his Aston Martin on the same spot on the grid, without hiding his surprise at a result that was all in all considered positive.

In fact, the Spaniard was able to close about 3 and a half tenths behind polesitter Max Verstappen and only half a tenth from George Russell in third position, also placing behind the two MCL38s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, although the two standard bearers of the McLaren could have finished in a considerably better position without the mistakes made towards the end of Q3.

However, in the race the limits of the AMR24 then emerged, well away from both Red Bull and Ferrari, which was then joined by significant liabilities also from Mercedes and McLaren, who confirmed themselves to be more competitive in Bahrain over the long distance. Alonso finished over a minute later, with a race far removed in terms of emotions and sensations from that of last season, in which Aston started with a good base also exploiting the concept problems of its closest rivals.

Lance Stroll, however, managed to rebuild his race and get back into the top ten after the contact at the start of the race in which he was rammed by Nico Hulkenberg in turn 1, thus ending up at the back of the group.

Saturday's race was perfectly in line with the Silverstone team's predictions, explained Alonso, underlining how the team returned to reality after a perhaps too positive qualifying: “I think [che il nono posto] is exactly what we expected. Our simulations said that we were around ninth position with little fight ahead of us, the top four teams a little too far ahead and with a comfortable gap behind,” explained the two-time world champion, who here in Bahrain last year Last year he took the podium.

“And that's exactly how it is. I think I had the McLaren's [Oscar Piastri] 18 seconds ahead and the Sauber [di Zhou Guanyu, 11°] 28 seconds behind. So, we were in the middle of nobody's race.”

“We definitely lack rhythm. The qualifying laps need to be studied, to understand why we were so fast. So, I think the race was normal. What was exceptional was the qualifying lap. The car has improved. We have improved top speed and fast cornering. Obviously, we made some sacrifices in the low-speed corners”, added Alonso, explaining which were the areas in which the AMR24 improved the most and which, instead, it took a step back in search of a compromise.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24, leaves the pit lane

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

After spending the first part of the race battling with Lewis Hamilton, who had started behind him, Aston tried to play strategy aware of being in no man's land, staying out longer in the hope that a Safety Car could come in which would have allowed Alonso to return to the game. It is no coincidence that the last stint on the hard was rather short compared to that of the rivals: in fact a strategy which, from a general perspective, did not represent the ideal compromise from a performance point of view, but it is clear that the team was only aiming to make the most of a possible entry of the safety car, which however did not occur.

Last year Aston Martin often proved to be much more competitive in terms of race pace rather than flying lap, making tire management its strong point. Then, with the various updates, this aspect partially disappeared, but the trend throughout 2023 was that of a more convincing AMR23 over long distances. The opposite was seen in Bahrain and it is an aspect that the team wants to fully understand.

“It's something we have to look at, because obviously we want both,” team principal Mike Krack said.

“And in the tests it seemed a bit the opposite. In qualifying we were much, much closer than we thought. In the race it was a bit more as we expected. We need to define this picture with the tracks to come, but we certainly weren't in capable of challenging the teams ahead of us.”