Alonso: “In the worst weekend you have to keep adding”

No more Aston Martin. Or rather, no top speed on the straight. Fernando Alonso could not do more than the 10th place he achieved in the classification of the Italian GP of F1 2023. But he did not worry. Do you know the characteristics of Monza They are very special and cannot really be replicated in other tracks. He knows that one of the weak points of his car is the top speed on the straight road and if there is anything in Monza it is the long straight. This weakness is rising and the key to this track and he knows that after his great podium at Zandvoort, this weekend it’s time to suffer. His goal was to get into Q3 and he did.

From there, without getting a slipstream that would give him something more in Q3, he was 10th and had no options for more.

Now the goal is set to finish 7th or 8th in this Sunday’s race, keeping a close eye on Hamilton so that it does not reduce points in the fight for third place in the World Cup and adds as much as possible for Aston Martin in the constructors. He knows there will be better weekends to reach the podiums and dreams of something else, like the next one in Singapore. For that, you need curves. Monza only had 6, as Alonso recalled. And there, no more scratches.

“We knew it was going to be a tough time trial. Q3 was the highest goal we had or the time estimate the computer gave us was more or less from 9th to 12th and we finally got around to it. because we are in the middle of that estimate on the 10th. It was not a very good circuit for us, with too many straights and too few corners. Tomorrow is time to suffer, but hey, there are better weekends and worse ones and at worst you have to keep adding points”, he said before televisions.

“The objective is to add points, I don’t know how many they are. I hope there is enough. PBut looking at the pace of the whole weekend, Top-7 or Top-8, I think it’s the best we can aspire to and try to help Aston Martin to the Manufacturers. And then, In the drivers’ championship our closest rival is Hamilton, he starts 8th and we are 10th so we are not that far behind him. You have to try to cover his career and well, defend ourselves a little. Tomorrow is a race on defense,” he added about his goals at Monza.

ASTON MARTIN IMPROVEMENTS

Fernando Alonso wants to make it clear that the Aston Martin’s performance on a track as special and exceptional as Monza should not be a thermometer to measure the evolution that his car debuted at Zandvoort. The improvements worked because Alonso was more comfortable driving and his car was competitive on a more buzzard track like Zandvoort. This removes iron from this 10th place.

“I think they have done well. The car feels good, but here, there are only 6 corners and 90% of the circuit is done at full speed. So there is not much to do on this circuit except to accelerate to straight roads. We haven’t fully appreciated the improvements in the Netherlands yet but I think it’s going well. And as I say: there are circuits, better, worse, and better and worse at the weekend, and this is one of the negatives. We had others during the championship (difficult weekends) and we added points. So let’s see if tomorrow we don’t make any mistakes.”he concluded.