Fernando Alonso displayed a practical mindset after Saturday’s qualifying in Barcelona, admitting that his disappointing P11 efficiency within the session truly surpassed his Aston Martin crew’s most optimistic projection.
Alonso did not make the top-ten shootout by a remarkably slim margin – a mere 0.019 seconds. Nevertheless, the tiny hole correctly displays the fierce stage of competitors that now dominates F1, from the highest to the underside of the grid.
A high podium contender within the first half of final yr, Aston has since slowly regressed, with Workforce Silverstone dropping extra floor this season to the front-runners.
In Monaco, Alonso famous his crew’s stagnation, and any glimmer of dwelling produced by Aston’s double-points end in Canada shortly subsided this weekend. However worse, the two-time world champion warns of extra struggles mendacity forward.
“Yeah very shut, we knew that it will be very tight in the sort of circuit,” stated Alonso, commenting on his Q3 miss, quoted by Motorsport Week.
“Austria will likely be excessive, as if you happen to’re working 1:04s it is going to be even tighter. So yeah I feel I’m proud of the end result, even whether it is painful to say in entrance of the house grandstands.
“However earlier than qualifying our predictions have been slightly bit extra pessimistic, even with one automobile we opted to go together with 3 units in Q1 which is an indication that you’re not very assured.
“All in all to start out P10 with Checo’s [Sergio Perez] penalty is an efficient end result and hopefully tomorrow we’re only one place away from the factors, let’s see.”
Whereas Aston missed the lower, with Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll additionally left stranded in Q2 down un 14th place, Alpine unexpectedly succeeded in placing each its drivers in Q3.
©AstonMartin
Requested if he was stunned to see his former crew outpace Aston Martin given its subdued outcomes year-to-date, Alonso stated: “No I feel we knew.
“Alpine was in entrance of us in Monaco, was very shut in Canada, right here they’re simply half a tenth in entrance so they’re getting higher and we’re getting worse most likely!”
Whereas bracing for a tricky interval within the short-term, Alonso urged that Aston Martin’s improvement programme ought to ultimately unlock extra potential from its AMR24.
“I feel as I stated many instances we’ve got some issues within the pipeline that ought to put us again in the proper path,” he added.
“It’s going to be painful right here, it’s going to be painful in Austria, in Silverstone, we’ve got to maintain scoring factors if it’s eighth, eighth, if it’s seventh, ninth, no matter.
“We can’t hand over and keep optimistic in these powerful instances.”
Hold updated with all of the F1 information through Fb and Twitter
