Aston Martin finishes far behind Mercedes at the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix and also has to bow to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. But the team doesn’t believe that was a turnaround.
“It wasn’t the strategy. We were slow compared to the Mercedes – slow on the soft and slow on the hard tyres.” – The Spanish Grand Prix was a disappointment for Aston Martin and local hero Fernando Alonso. Mercedes was significantly faster and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari also landed in front of the dark green cars.
A turning point for the 2023 Formula 1 season? If you listen to Alonso, you could almost believe it: “We were just too slow – both on the soft and on the hard tires. We had to concentrate on the Alpines and the AlphaTauris and were able to keep up with Ferrari’s pace.”
Team Principal Mike Krack partially disagrees: “We’re a bit disappointed with our pace, especially in the first stint on the soft tires. Compared to some of our direct competitors, we didn’t have the pace and need to find out why that is because the difference was Pretty big at the start. Some cars just passed us.”
“But once we put the hard tires on we were back in the game compared to the competition. So the main thing we need to understand is what happened at the start of the race, why we were so different in terms of competitiveness at different points in the race.”
Why Alonso didn’t attack Stroll
So Krack sees the problem more in the performance at the beginning of the race. Lance Stroll fell behind both Mercedes for the first 14 laps before coming into the pits. Fernando Alonso was also left behind by George Russell. Sergio Perez also came by later. What remained were places six and seven and the realization that I was only the fourth strongest force.
Alonso also doesn’t want to know anything about a trend reversal and promises: “I think that in two weeks [in Kanada] will see a completely different picture and hopefully soon be able to fight with the Red Bulls.”
Compared to his direct rivals, Alonso drove a long first stint and then made up place by place to the delight of the home fans. The reason: “When Russell passed me, we changed our plan a bit to [nach dem Stopp] not to be too close to the cars in front of us.” But that also meant he drove longer on the disadvantageous soft tyres.
The strategy was to come up trumps in the last 15 laps – not at the top, but in the midfield. The plan worked. On lap 51 he overtook Esteban Ocon, who pulled far to the right. Alonso squeezed past anyway and made a strong swerve to the left, which could be interpreted as an angry reaction from the outside.
The two-time world champion disagrees: “Nothing happened. I passed Zhou, Tsunoda and Esteban and for me everyone felt [Überholmanöver] right on.”
At the end of the race he was right behind Stroll, but behaved in a team-friendly manner without being asked. He made it clear that he would not attack the Canadian. Why did he emphasize that so clearly?
“There were ten laps to go and I had a little fresher tires but I was a tenth or two faster than him, that’s all. I destroyed an underbody yesterday and didn’t want him or me to destroy another one. For us [als Team] it doesn’t make any difference whether we finish sixth and seventh or seventh and sixth,” he explained.
Bad qualifying to blame?
Back to the speed issue: was the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya just not an Aston Martin track? Or was it the updates from the competition? “I don’t know. I think a bit of both,” said Alonso.
“The track wasn’t the best for us. Already in the first practice session we had a completely different set-up than we had planned in advance. So we had to put in a lot of work before we were satisfied with the car. So far we’ve been we [in diesem Jahr] always happy with the car after the first practice session”.
“And then the updates from the others who may not have shown their full potential in Monaco and Miami – that is, on the street courses. Here we saw that they might be a little stronger. But I’m not worried. It’s going to be better and worse weekends and we will get our chance in Canada.
Another difference: Alonso didn’t start from the front row this time. So have the results been above average lately? Here, too, the opinions of Alonso and Krack differ.
“Probably so,” says the Asturian. “In Miami we were quite confused after free practice, then we qualified for the front row. That made the race easier. And in Monaco we struggled a bit in free practice but qualified second. From there it’s obviously easier to get on the podium.”
“Like I said, I don’t think the pace of the cars really showed until Barcelona. The past few races have been a bit strange and affected by qualifying. But I’m happy with the race and completely relaxed.”
Krack believes: “Even if we had started, say, second, it would have been difficult to keep the Mercedes behind us for the first 15 laps because I think we were between five and seven tenths slower at times. That we have to understand.”
“I think we were pretty strong on the hard tires at the end. But by then the damage had already been done. Although we shouldn’t call it damage. We ended up well up in the points with both cars and got 14 points. It so it’s not a drama at all.”