GP Miami: Alonso and Aston Martin’s “strong point” he wants to exploit this weekend

Aston Martin has the greatest strength in tire wear. Last week, In Baku, Fernando Alonso’s fourth place hid the great speed shown in the green car race, the best after the Red Bulls in a long time. The ‘Safety Car’ that appeared in the race made it possible for Leclerc to get rid of the medium tires, on which he was suffering high wear, and put on hard tires. This reduced Oviedo’s clear podium options. And a week later, the Spaniard will have to look for his fourth podium in 5 races at a Miami GP where he hopes to take advantage of his car’s “strong point”.. High track temperatures are expected in Miami, around 50 degrees, and despite the fact that the tires chosen for this Grand Prix are a step harder than the Baku tires, Aston Martin can take advantage of those tarmac conditions.

“This will probably be the strong point of our car”, the Spaniard argued in the run-up to the Miami GP. Although it will first be necessary for the team to confirm this in free practice on a resurfaced track.

However, there are many conditions that can complicate Fernando’s work. Forecasts indicate a 30% chance of rain for Sunday, something that could change everything. And if there are clouds, the temperature of the asphalt will drop. In this sense, in Baku the safety car already hurt him by not being able to take advantage of his small breakdown in the first round to come back and in Miami it will again be another important factor. Fernando, who spoke about it all, knows this: “I hope we can use that point if there aren’t many safety cars or it’s raining… This is what we think, but we want to confirm it in practice.”

Here, we must add that Aston Martin is expected to solve once and for all its Baku DRS problems, which hurt Alonso in qualifying. A better ‘qualifying’ position will make his job easier on Sunday on his way to the podium. At this point, this weekend there will be 3 free training sessions againsomething that should allow Aston Martin and Alonso to optimize the performance of a car that in Baku, in a highly compressed sprint format and with few free practice sessions, did not perform as expected on Friday and Saturday

“The circuit will be different with the resurfacing, we’ll see how it goes. It’s similar to Jeddah and Baku and I don’t expect many surprises, but these temperatures are strange. The track was 60ºC on Wednesday. Although it it’s only been five days since Baku and I didn’t expect so many changes in performance”, he said. Fernando can opt for the podium for another week.

evolutions

Ferrari is expected to wear a new diffuser and has already applied some changes from Miami, while the Italians and Mercedes should bring big improvements to the next round of Imola. For now, Fernando Alonso is keeping his feet on the ground ahead of the development race for the single-seater against two of the best teams in F1. The Spaniard will try to maximize his car every weekend, “no pressure”.

“We run every Sunday without pressure and if we can keep scoring more points than them, that’s good news. If we can’t, because we can’t keep up with the progress they’re making, we’ll focus on 2024 car We are growing as a team and we are in a position that we did not expect with a very fast car, and we want to make the team faster in areas where we are not at the highest level.” Spanish comments.

DRS zones are shortened

The FIA ​​has decided to shorten two of the three DRS zones at the Miami circuit. In this sense, Fernando Alonso considers that it can be negative for some cars, but positive for others.

“Last year, overtaking here was the easiest, I think. That’s why the FIA ​​shortened the DRS. “In Baku it was also one of the easiest last year, so they shortened the DRS. I heard that Lewis (Hamilton) was saying this year was too short. But for Red Bull it was too long because they overtook Leclerc and he was opening up to brake on the outside at turn one. So if you take a car as a reference, it’s too long, if you take another vehicle, it’s too short”, he reflected.

“It’s hard to predict. It is true that this year the cars seem to be more difficult to follow, that is 100 percent correct, but for Red Bull it seems that the DRS zones are too long. So it depends on the car you choose.”he added.

Equality and transcendence

In addition, he reflected on the success or otherwise of the regulations introduced in 2022 to equalize the benefits of all. “If we don’t have Red Bull at the front, I think it will be a very interesting battle with three or four teams within one or two tenths and maybe we will say that the rules are a smart move. So maybe this will be the story in a few years or whatever, when we have some stability in the rules, then maybe in 2026 (with new engine regulations) everything will be different again,” he said.

“If you remove Red Bull, sometimes within six tenths they go from third to 16th in Q1 to go to the next session. Then, in the end you finish qualifying in the order that deserves you. Then, in the race, how do you catch a car in front of you that’s only half a tenth of a point off the pace? I think that’s the main reason. And then it might be the tires as well. They’re still pretty hot if you follow the cars. So you have to make smart decisions when you want to get too close to a car in front of you.”

That’s exactly what Alonso did in Baku a week ago. He pulled away from Leclerc in his second stint to take care of the tires and attack at the end. He separated 3 seconds from Charles and, with his excellent final speed, he was 0″8 behind the Monegasque podium.