Alonso and Aston Martin and a big doubt for the British F1 GP

After what was seen in the first 9 races of the year, especially after the improvements shown by teams such as Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes or McLarenthere seems to be a clear certainty: Verstappen and Red Bull they are even more favorite in GP Great Britain F1 2023 for its good performance in fast curves. the track of Silverstone It fits like a glove with the characteristics of a car that surpasses any layout. But from there, everything is unknown. Especially, it is the rhythm that can be obtained Aston Martin at his home Grand Prix, right in front of his headquarters.

What will Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso do at Silverstone? This is one of the great doubts. Mainly, because the green car has a big difference in performance on the final tracks. In Barcelona, ​​​​​​​​fight for the podium. There, many took for granted that Mercedes had overtaken Aston Martin in progress with its new package of evolutions. But come Canada and Aston Martin is again the second best car on the track, closer than ever to Red Bull, this time on a high-speed track, with a long straight, and again on a track with low temperatures of asphalt.

The new package introduced in Canada seems to have paid off and the team hopes to be faster in Austria after studying their new parts and understanding how to optimize the car’s set-up with those improvements. But in Austria, Fernando Alonso was 6th at the finish line (5th after Sainz’s sanction), driving alone behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, who made great strides in its many evolutions, and ahead of some sunken Mercedes.

Because of this, Fernando Alonso clarified after the race that we should not be pessimistic or make positive or negative conclusions from each passing race and that the result and performance of the cars may vary throughout the year depending on the characteristics of each track due. with the great parity that exists in the chasing pack at Red Bull. According to Alonso, the Red Bull Ring is one of the worst tracks for his team because historically it has not been good there. He can influence not to fight for the podium. At Silverstone they hope to do better.

In fact, he already warned Barcelona a few weeks ago: “I’m very happy. And second from Monaco, very happy. And the bad weekend is coming, huh! And I don’t know if it will be or it will be one, there will be two Red Bulls, two Ferraris and two Mercedes and maybe 7th or 1st -8 of us there. And I will continue to be happy. Because the project is more long-term and not from weekend to weekend. That could be other teams, who will go for a short period of time. We have a mission and it is more long term”he argued on this matter, ensuring that his car would give him more opportunities to fight for wins or be close to them throughout the year, on other types of tracks.

The man from Oviedo did not make a mistake. Now, his fans are looking forward to Silverstone to see if Alonso can improve on the speed shown in Austria, improve by one lap in qualifying so that ‘qualification’ does not remove him from the podium and let him fight for the top. It depends on many factors in a circuit where things have historically happened. For example: a dominant Hamilton sweating it out to win three tires after a puncture or the car problem that Verstappen had last year.

upgrade pack

The first factor is the optimization of the new package. First of all, with some new things coming for this British F1 GP in the car of Alonso and Lance Stroll, in accordance with the package brought to Canada, to perfect it.

In this sense, another important point could be the optimization of the settings with these new improvements. Aston Martin came from very little ability to experiment in the settings in Canada (due to the rain on Saturday) and in Austria (because there was only one practice session before the real fire in the sprint weekend). At Silverstone, rain permitting, Alonso and Aston Martin will be able to continue taking data to optimize their car’s settings on the Silverstone circuit, something key to finding the perfect balance that allows Fernando to fight for better positions than Austria. .

Fast corners and cool tracks

Another important point is the arrangement of the track. In Austria, the combination of fast corners and low temperatures did not work. In Canada, a combination of long straights and low temperatures did. Silverstone doesn’t seem like the perfect track for Aston Martin to shine on, but they will want to go one better than Austria and with Saturday’s rain Alonso will be trying to fish the turbulent rivers for a good starting position.

Big step forward by Ferrari

Another of the main points in the fight for the podium is the rivals of Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. Mercedes, after Canada and Austria, seems to have lost even if it should improve. McLaren made big strides in Austria and should be in that match, including its two cars, because only in Austria did Lando Norris bring new things. And above all, Ferrari.

The Ferrari is a very fast one lap car and seems to be correcting its race pace every Sunday. It will be a litmus test for Ferrari, to see if they have really recovered from the setback and can be consistent podium favorites after Red Bull. Ferrari’s strong point is not fast corners, but in Austria they did very well and could be a good opponent for Aston Martin, which also brings new improvement parts after the new package they launched in Barcelona and Austria.

new tires

The last doubt lies in the new Pirelli tires. Pirelli considers that the inclusion of new tires with harder casing (for safety) should not change the performance of the cars. But from Italy they warn that “the new front wheels will have a slightly stronger structure and this may not directly affect those with less solid front parts, that is, Aston Martin or Ferrari. In fact , Frédéric Vasseur, head of Ferrari, made it clear after the Austrian GP that the new tires can be a “game changer”, that is, they can change the order of what has been seen so far, not the level of reaching Red Bull, but to cause important changes in the prosecution group. Let’s see if true.