Aston Martin had a disastrous weekend in Barcelona. While they achieved the best team result of the season at the F1 Grand Prix in Canada, they only managed 12th and 14th place in Spain. In the end, neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll scored any points in the World Championship. Is the team in crisis?
Caught in a vicious circle: The weaknesses of Aston Martin
Alonso identified a lack of pace and high tyre wear as the main problems of the AMR24 during the race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. After the Spanish GP, Alonso analyzed it openly and honestly: “We didn’t have the pace. Barcelona sorts the field by pace and leaves no room to hide anything. After 66 laps, you end up in the position you deserve. Today we are in 12th place. That’s the maximum. The car hasn’t been great all weekend and in the race we confirmed that: a lot of sliding around, especially in the high-speed corners, which destroys the tyre. That’s how you get into a vicious circle.”
“We haven’t been really fast all weekend. We’re quite far away at the moment and really not competitive,” said his Aston Martin teammate Stroll. “As expected, we spent a lot of the race managing tyre degradation.”
“In Barcelona, the tires suffer. If you have problems with balance or lack of aerodynamic performance, you slide. The more you slide, the faster the tires wear out,” explained Mike Krack, team boss of the British racing team, describes the vicious circle. It is also known that their car has a weakness in long corners.
The defeat at the Spanish GP was not entirely unexpected for Aston Martin, according to the team. Krack admitted that they had known beforehand that it would be one of the most difficult weekends. The fact that they were still so close to the competition in qualifying gave them hope for a short time. “But today we saw that this hope was not justified and that we were not fast enough to do anything. The fears we had when we came here were confirmed,” said Krack after the Formula 1 race in Spain.
How did the Spanish Grand Prix go for Mercedes, Ferrari and Co.? Christian highlights the key points:
Fernando Alonso calls for upgrades: Points out of reach for Aston Martin
Alonso, who had hoped to start the race in the points with 10th place, lost two positions on the opening lap because he had to swerve in turn 1. After that, both Aston Martin drivers drove consistently as a pair for much of the race and were in positions 12 to 14. “Our result reflects where we are at the moment. We are not in a position to score points,” said Alonso, drawing a bitter conclusion.
The only solution to this problem? Vehicle development! “We need to make a significant step forward – hopefully in the next few races. Austria is in five days, so not much will happen. Nor in Silverstone. Hopefully we will make a step in Hungary or after that that will improve our performance,” announced Alonso. After Barcelona, the team only brought a small update package with revised front and rear suspension.
Team boss Mike Krack warned that improvements to the car would take time: “It’s a continuous process. It’s something that many people are working on and many people are analyzing. You draw conclusions, then you go to the next race and revise your conclusions. Development is not always straightforward.” The team did understand the problems after Barcelona better than after Imola, Monaco and Canada, which makes them look forward with confidence. But the tight racing calendar is a big challenge for everyone. “You have five races in six weeks. You don’t have time – that’s the biggest problem at the moment,” said Krack.
The next updates will therefore only follow after the triple-header – Aston Martin will have to be patient. Mick Krack is optimistic in the meantime, as the development results so far have been encouraging and the team knows which areas they need to improve. The Aston Martin team boss does not want to see a crisis. In addition, there should already be Austria will go better because the Red Bull Ring suits the AMR24 better, said Krack: “It’s a different track with more straights, more DRS, some short corners, but also a few long corners. I don’t think it will be as difficult as Barcelona.”