F1 | Alonso: “Unacceptable for Aston to finish behind Haas and Williams”

After finishing outside the points at Monza, Fernando Alonso made no secret of his disappointment, not only because he was unable to finish in the top ten on a track where he thought Aston Martin might struggle more, but also because of the general trend he has seen this season.

At the beginning of the year, in fact, the Silverstone team had started its season by finishing among the top five teams, but updates that did not give the hoped-for results, as well as the growth of its rivals from race to race, meant that Aston Martin “went back” rather than moving forward.

It is no mystery, in fact, that the British team itself also backtracked on some technical innovations, especially on the bottom, a theme that in reality misled many teams, such as Ferrari and Racing Bulls, on which, among other things, doubts emerged even with the package brought to Monza and entrusted only to Yuki Tsunoda.

While at least one AMR24 reached Q3 in each of the first seven qualifying sessions of the season, including sprint qualifying, this only happened five times in the next 12. In terms of Grand Prix results, Aston has scored 42 points from the first six rounds, the bulk of which is currently holding off Racing Bulls and Haas, while they have managed 26 points from the next six, including six in the last four.

Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll qualified 11th and 17th respectively for the Italian Grand Prix, but it was expected to be a tough race, with Aston having shown signs of tyre management issues all year. With the top teams clearly out of reach, Aston were hoping to try and fight for the points, but Alonso failed to beat either Haas or Williams, finishing just a few tenths behind both.

In reality, Magnussen would have been completely out of reach, but a ten-second penalty meant he slipped to tenth, just a few tenths ahead of Alonso in total race time and less than a second behind Albon, who thus inherited ninth place. The AMR24 paid for its less than excellent top speeds, also because, in reality, the engineers had made the DRS effect one of its strong points, but with such an unloaded configuration the mobile wing had a less significant impact, and then suffered in the race.

The AMR24 lacks aerodynamic load, an aspect that the engineers are working on and, more generally, the fact that it tends to use the tyres more on many occasions makes it slip back in the order compared to the position obtained in qualifying. At Monza Alonso was forced to make two stops, while both Magnussen and Albon came in only once, managing the pace.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Alonso admitted that he feels a little helpless in trying to get the best out of this car, but he doesn’t want to settle for fighting with mid-table cars.

“Obviously we can’t do anything. We are in the hands of our team and I think Lance and I are trying to do our best every weekend. An inspired weekend, like this one from me, will not be remembered, even though it was a good weekend,” said the Spaniard, noting how happy he was with his performance on a personal level.

“But I think this year me and Lance have been very close, and Monza was one of those weekends where I was a little bit better, I was happy with the car and I pushed to the level that was maybe beyond 100%, but we only got an 11th place, so I’m disappointed about that.”

“We have to be patient. We have to understand that the big goal is 2026. But at the same time, I think as a team, we should be able to accept that we are not in the fight for the top eight, because the top teams are well ahead of us. But now that we are behind Williams, behind Haas, behind Racing Bulls, I think we have to raise the bar a bit. We have to improve.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“We were lucky with the start, we overtook Hulkenberg. And then we were tenth, close to Alex Albon. We had an amazing pace with the Williams. We opted for two stops: we couldn’t do them in one with the tyre degradation. It’s very painful to lose the points because I think in a way we deserved them, thanks to a well-managed race. But the car is what it is at the moment and we have to improve.”

Alonso does not expect the Aston’s performance to improve significantly in the near future, but will be looking forward to further updates to the AMR24.

“Until we have an update package on the car, this is what it is and this is not enough. It’s not good in Monza. It’s not good in Zandvoort, in Spa, in Hungary. So I don’t think there will be big changes in Baku, Singapore or Austin, unless we bring new parts. That’s the plan.”