First weekend without points collected for Aston Martin, who in Monte Carlo placed Fernando Alonso in eleventh position and Lance Stroll in fourteenth. This negative result accentuates the decline in competitiveness shown by the AMR24, despite the updates brought first to Suzuka and then to Imola.
Lawrence Stroll’s team is unable to keep up with the other four teams with which they formed half of the field consistently in the top 10 at the beginning of the year and now they must start looking over their shoulders. With Yuki Tsunoda’s eighth place in the Monaco GP, Racing Bulls moved within 20 points of Aston in the Constructors’ Championship.
ALONSO: “WE NEED TO IMPROVE FOR CANADA”
Fernando Alonso influenced the race in the Principality of the group of drivers who started behind him. The two-time world champion kept a very slow pace for a long time to allow his teammate to have enough advantage to make a new pit stop and attempt to attack Pierre Gasly’s tenth place, all of which was then made in vain by contact with the barriers which caused the Canadian to have a puncture.
Speaking about his race, Alonso explained:
“We were unlucky at the start. We had chosen the Hard tyre with the aim of going very long in the first stint. With the red flag, everyone changed tyres.
“We had to put on the Medium and get to the end. It was very difficult to keep the tyres alive. At a certain point we thought about trying a different strategy with Lance, we were outside the points and had nothing to lose.
“It didn’t work, but overall, it was a disappointing weekend. We need to get better for Canada.”
The Spaniard also confessed that he spent most of the race thinking he was in 10th, only discovering after the checkered flag that he had not scored a point in the Principality.
THE LAST FEW WEEKENDS HAVE BEEN A WAKE-UP CALL FOR ASTON MARTIN
The previous weekend in Imola, during which the new package of updates made its debut, had already been quite disappointing, especially for Alonso relegated to an anonymous nineteenth position. While waiting for the new updates already promised by Aston Martin, Alonso commented on the British team’s difficult moment as follows:
“You learn a lot from difficulties, and that’s what we try to do, but it’s difficult… with the current form, we seem to go back to the centre of the group instead of looking ahead.”
According to Alonso, the latest disappointing results will serve to motivate Aston Martin:
“These two races were a big wake-up call for the team, and that will be positive. Last season, we had a sequence of circuits that were very favourable to our car – we did P2 in Monaco and Canada with a very strong pace.
“We arrived at this year with different sensations and with some doubts after Imola, where we hadn’t been fast. We must reverse this trend.
“I believe it will take a few races before we introduce a significant update to the car. But until then, we need to give our all and improve on the track to achieve better results.
“These things can change quickly. We’ve seen many examples. A good upgrade on the car can move you five or six places, so that’s what we want to do, and we will work hard in that direction .”
STROLL: “NOT THE EASIEST WEEKEND”
The strategy devised for Lance Stroll did not work due to an error by the Canadian driver. But this at least allowed the Canadian to make some overtakes on softs in the final laps.
“You need a large performance delta to overtake at Monte Carlo. We did what we could with the strategy.
“We tried to race with Gasly in the second half of the Grand Prix.
“In the end, it didn’t work, and we couldn’t score a point. This weekend wasn’t the easiest and shows that we need to find a little more rhythm .”
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack underlines how the team must work to get back on its feet:
“It was another difficult day, compromised by qualifying outside the points zone on Saturday.
“Now it’s time to regroup as a team, focus on improvements and return to Canada stronger.”
