F1 News: Fernando Alonso Speaks Out On Aston Martin Upgrades - 'Need To Not Talk And Deliver'

Saajan Jogia | Jul 14, 2024

Jun 7, 2024; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Aston Martin driver driver Fernando Alonso (ESP) in the pit lane during the practice session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has revealed that the AMR24 F1 car's performance seems to be back to its 'natural position' following the P7 and P8 finishes at the British Grand Prix. The Spaniard compared the current performance to its pre-Imola spec, indicating that the team had successfully reversed the previous downgrade.

Things started to go astray after Aston Martin introduced upgrades for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which caused the car's performance to deteriorate significantly to a point where the team managed to score points in only two of the five subsequent races.

This is a stark contrast to the performance output earlier in the season, where the AMR24 helped score points in each of the first six Grands Prix. Fortunately, reworked aerodynamics around the car's rear brake ducts and a new front wing introduced at Silverstone have restored the car to 'normality'. Feeling happy about the correction, Alonso told Motorsport.com:

"It was pretty good, I mean, the feeling was back to normality.

"We were the fifth, sixth fastest team. Nico [Hulkenberg] I think was very fast the whole weekend, but we could fight for points.

"Seventh and eighth, I think it's more or less the positions we were in pre-Imola. We came back to our more natural position, so I'm happy for that.

"It has been better; after Austria, we regrouped a little bit, we understood a couple of directions that maybe were not right. As I said, we're happy to be back in the points, it felt more competitive."

Because of the drop in performance after Imola, Alonso is quite wary about the incoming upgrades for the car in Hungary and Belgium before the summer break. Remaining hopeful, he added:

"We need to prove it; we need to not talk and deliver the results.

"We've been bringing in a lot of new parts to the car and some of them they work, some of them they didn't. Hopefully, in Hungary, we have a positive surprise."

However, team principal Mike Krack remains skeptical of this theory, citing the varying conditions and track temperatures experienced over the last few race venues. Silverstone, in particular, was notably cold, prompting Krack to advise caution and the need for a thorough analysis before reaching any definitive conclusions. He explained:

"We need to first analyze because it was also not a normal race with the wet in between. We need to have a look. The ranking is better than the previous two, we don't have to be blind to see that, but we have to analyse if the performance is better.

"We need to see what is the effect of [the new parts] and then decide how we move on.

"I think we need to be careful comparing these races. We were in Austria, it was 50-60 degree track temperature, the softest tyres, on the track, that has either very high-speed or very low-speed [corners].

"You come [to Silverstone], it's very cold, you have the hardest tires, so I think these are the effects that you have to isolate and separate, not that you get lost into just being driven by the ranking and the position".