Fernando Alonso admits that the Emilia Romagna GP turned into a test session for his Aston Martin team after any chance of making progress failed to materialise. Following a crash in FP3 and a difficult Q1 session, Alonso qualified 19th at Imola. With little to lose, the team then decided to drop him out of Parc Ferme and change his set-up, obliging him to start from the pitlane.
In a further gamble, he started on the unfavourable soft tyre in the anticipation that he might benefit from an early safety car. In fact, the race ran uninterrupted and after an early stop to ditch the soft, Alonso finished 19th and last of the cars that were still running.
“Our only hope, to be honest, was just a safety car, or a few safety cars, red flags or those kinds of things,” he said.
“That’s why we started with the red tyre, in case there is something going on. We still had the yellow and the hard tyre, the best race tyres for the race conditions. But we started at the back, nothing happened the whole race, so we just used the race as a test.”
He added: “It was as predicted. Unfortunately in this race, you only hope for a safety car or red flag or something that can mix a little bit the race.
“It didn’t happen, so it was a little bit boring from behind, always in traffic, trying different strategies, multiple pitstops, all these kinds of things, to get some data for the team. But for the driver himself, there’s not much you can do.”
He also had an interesting moment when his front left brake caught fire as he left the pits.
“I was convinced that the fire will stop as soon as I pick up the speed, and the ventilation plays its part,” he said. “But this is the longest pitlane until you release the pit limiter! So it felt long in the car, but I think everything was fine.”
Alonso reserved judgement about the upgrade package that the team ran for the first time at Imola.
“I think we experimented a lot in FP1, in FP2 with Lance’s car with different packages. FP3 was another experiment.
“Another one now in the race, taking the opportunity on my car to start from the pit lane. So, I think it’s early days to make conclusions. And I think it’s a question for the team, with all the data they have they will give more precise information.”
He also said it was hard to judge if the set-up changes made for Sunday had actually improved the car.
“I’ve felt the car similar, to be honest, compared to the rest of the weekend,” he said. “But obviously, the team has all the sensors, all the all the tools to analyse better the car performance, so we have to wait and see what the numbers say, and if we find a direction for the next few races.”
Alonso admitted that recent weeks have been difficult for Aston Martin as rivals continue to improve.
“We are aware of the situation, and we see that the top three teams they are little bit far away at the moment,” he said. “And even VCARB, Daniel [Ricciardo] was P4 in the sprint race in Miami, Yuki [Tsunoda] was very fast this weekend.
“So we need to keep on working, because everything is so tight if you don’t improve those two or three tenths that you naturally have to improve every two or three Grands Prix when you are in the midfield.”
Regarding prospects for the next race, he said:
“It depends on the car. If the car doesn’t handle well in Monaco, it’s a torture going fast in that track. So I think first of all, we need to set up the car properly. We need to find the maximum performance, and we need to concentrate on Saturday.
“I think on Sunday, it’s like here, no one will overtake. So all the effort will be on Saturday like everyone else, and yeah, hopefully, that perfect lap comes next weekend.”
