The two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso mercilessly settled accounts with his employer Aston Martin after qualifying for the race in Barcelona. The status quo, the Spaniard said, could not be more devastating.
Aston Martin experienced its next debacle in qualifying for the Barcelona-Catalonia Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll ended up in the last two places on Saturday and were ultimately over a second behind Valtteri Bottas, who placed his Cadillac in 20th place on the grid.
Above all, Alonso mercilessly settled accounts with his employer after the session. Nothing about the result was surprising, rumbled the two-time champion. “I came here and knew that they were last – and we are last. So that’s no surprise,” said the 44-year-old, who then continued.
“Nothing was disclosed. We knew that we would have the worst car and the worst engine. That has been clear in every race so far,” rumbled the veteran, who doesn’t expect any improvement on Sunday or in the upcoming race in Austria.
Alonso: We will also be last in Spielberg
Aston Martin has decided on the strategy of only bringing upgrades to the AMR26 in the second half of the season. “We will arrive in Austria in two weeks and be last in qualifying,” he said resignedly. The team deliberately chose this path: “And we repeat ourselves every weekend,” said Alonso defiantly.
With just a single point, Aston Martin is in second-to-last place in the constructors’ standings after six races this season. Alonso scored this one point at the last race in Monaco, where he benefited from the penalties that were imposed on Mercedes driver George Russell, among others. So far, we haven’t been able to make it into the top 10 on our own.