At Aston Martin there is optimism. This is what breath this Thursday morning, in the run-up to the Dutch GP, in the hospitality of the green team. Between morning coffees, on the second floor of the ‘house’ on wheels in the Silverstone painting, the band members are optimistic about the many novelties they bring to the AMR23 of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll at Zandvoort. After seeing how the improvements made in the previous races did not give the expected results and McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari improved their performance compared to Aston Martin, this weekend the Silverstone box shows a significant package of improvements to Zandvoort where they hope to get back into the fight.
“There are important changes. We are optimistic. You will see them this Friday…”, they pointed out within the team at an informal breakfast with a small group of the press. And just as optimistic was Fernando Alonso at the press conference before the F1 Dutch GP. The Asturian hopes that the team will be able to get out of the hole of the last few appointments after understanding what did not work in the previous improvements and have already shown some updates that should work. Fernando hopes to be in contention for a few more podiums this year, although he made it clear that he will not be concerned about not adding another podium for the rest of the year. The priority is another and it is called 2024.
“I wouldn’t be disappointed if I don’t get on the podium anymore, it’s more difficult now because it’s more competitive now, there are four teams there that are close to fighting and repeating the previous six podiums is difficult, but I ‘ d be happy if I get two or three more.” , declared the Asturian pilot in a press conference, hoping on the other hand that the improvements will bear fruit.
“Finish third in the Drivers’ Championship? I don’t know… in every race there are improvements in every team And every weekend the balance changes a bit, today I believe that Mercedes is faster than us and we need to be more consistent and return to the performance of a few races ago. And we’ll see”, he said in relation to the fight for third place in the World Cup, which so far maintains 149 points, just one more than a Hamilton who in recent races had better Mercedes and Leclerc in fifth place with 99 points, 50 from the Spanish.
“It was unexpected how competitive the car was at the beginning of the season and how strong we were, maximizing every opportunity in every race to get those podiums, with the strategy, the performance, and in the last races that we haven’t been able to be competitive, but we keep getting points in every race and now we want to get back to a more competitive position. Everyone behind Red Bull is very tight, including Mercedes, Ferrar, McLaren and Aston Martin, so we want to be in that fight until the end in Abu Dhabi.” he added summarizing what was happening this year.
The main goal in the second half of the year
“In F1, things change quickly. It was a surprise for us that the car was so fast (at the start of the season). The approach, the reliability… we did things well in many races to get the those results. and we tried to maximize the car from the first practice to Sunday. We are competing in the Champions League against the top teams and trying to improve off the track as well and that is the biggest challenge for Aston Martin.”he added.
In addition, Alonso said what Aston Martin’s main goal is for the second part of the course: “Have a clear direction, not just for this year, but for next year. The direction the vehicle is traveling. In Canada we got some new parts, at Silverstone, and now there are new aero parts which I hope will lead us to perform as we hope.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
