Undrivable. This is how Fernando Alonso described his Aston Martin AMR23 during the Singapore Grand Prix, a Formula 1 event staged last weekend on the Marina Bay track.
The Asturian was the protagonist of a very difficult race, especially in the second stint after taking a 5″ penalty for having involuntarily crossed the entry line into the pit lane, served at the pit stop and having lost precious seconds due to a parking much slower than expected.
What made everything even more complex was a problem linked to the aerodynamics of the single-seater, with a rear suspension cover detached from the seat which damaged it.
Mike Krack, team principal of Aston Martin, stated that he perfectly understood the frustration of his top driver, who had started this weekend with very different expectations.
“As a team we have to recognize if a rider is critical. Obviously we haven’t provided the performances he’s used to and so I think it’s right like this. We want the riders to give everything, and then it’s normal for athletes to react like this, so we don’t It’s a problem.”
At one point in the race, Fernando was occupying sixth position. From that moment on, however, his performances plummeted. “We thought we had good pace,” Krack continued. I think we knew from the start that it would be difficult to fight with the leaders. So I think in the medium term everything was working correctly.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
“Then, after the Safety Car, we put on the hard tires and struggled more. We need to understand why. We struggled to the point that, when they introduced the Virtual Safety Car, we weren’t sure we could cover the entire race distance with a decent performance level.”
“We decided to change and then the sequence of events, the penalty, the pit stop gone wrong, we came out in a penalizing position, far behind. And in the end that’s how things went.”
The bad race of the AMR23 number 14 will be studied by the team, because on Friday Alonso was found to have one of the most competitive paces of the lot.
“We need to fully understand what happened,” Krack continued. “We also have some damage to the car which we need to understand how much it affected the performance. We had a problem with one of the suspension fairings, an aerodynamic part.”
“We saw it at the pit stop and we also saw it in the images. Furthermore, Singapore is a track where you always race in traffic, which always affects a lot and you don’t know how much the others are saving, how much they are managing the tyres. So this It’s one of the most difficult races to understand.”
The Aston Martin team principal downplayed Alonso’s mistake at the entrance to the garage, which triggered the penalty: “We need to review that aspect too. Because there are some settings to do, if they have been done, and if the he was also reminded to do them. So I will be cautious about calling it a mistake until we have analyzed it.”
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