Aston Martin came to Imola with high hopes. Once again the Silverstone team brought some Formula 1 updates. However, these don’t seem to be working at the moment. Rather the opposite is the case. Even with new Imola updates and setup changes right before the race, Fernando Alonso lacked performance. At least Lance Stroll collected two points. Alonso himself saw the race more like a test day.
Alonso: Car felt the same despite setup changes
In the third free practice session on Saturday, Alonso lost his Aston Martin and crashed. The team was able to repair the car in time. However, Alonso still didn’t manage to make it into Q2. Theoretically he would have started from 19th place. But Aston Martin took advantage of the already poor starting position to make changes to the car despite parc ferme.
This naturally led to a start from the pit lane. But the changes didn’t seem to have achieved much. Alonso finished the race in nominal last place. Alexander Albon retired during the race. “It was as expected. In this race you hope for a safety car or a red flag. That didn’t happen, we were in the middle of traffic,” explains Alonso.
Nevertheless: 19th place is sobering for Alonso. Despite the setup changes, the Spaniard hardly made up any positions. “I didn’t feel any difference from the rest of the weekend,” said Alonso. “But the team has all the sensors, so we have to wait and see what the data tells us. It was like a test day. Our hope was something unusual.”
By the way, Fernando Alonso wasn’t the only one hoping for a safety car. Teammate Lance Stroll stayed on the track for over 30 laps on medium tires before coming to the pit stop. “We were hoping for a safety car, but in the end it was fun to overtake the cars,” said Stroll. In the team’s internal duel, Stroll celebrated his first victory in the race against Alonso. With ninth place he scored two points.
The mystery of the Aston Martin updates
Said two points are not enough in the fight for fourth place in the constructors’ world championship. Mercedes collected 15 points. This means the gap to the silver targets grows to 35 points. The Racing Bulls are getting closer and closer with a total of 20 points.
In order to counteract the negative trend, the team needs updates. It doesn’t help that Aston Martin has the most updates throughout the season and has yet to make any progress in performance. The team also brought new parts to the car in Imola.
“I don’t know if it will work in Monaco. We experimented with different packages on Lance’s car in the first two practice sessions. In FP3 we also tested and the same applies to the race now. I think it’s a bit too early “To come to some conclusion,” said Alonso.