‘The year is over’ for Alonso

He F1 Mexican GP This is the last page of a book that started in a fast and surprising way for Fernando Alonso and all his fans. Many will say there are still three races left to complete the course, starting this weekend on Brazilian F1 GPand it’s true that the Asturian will still defend himself, until the last lap of the last GP of the year, against Norris, Leclerc or Russell, who threatens his 5th place in the Drivers’ World Championship. But regardless of the result, for Fernando Alonso and his real interests, the sporting year, of results and dreams, is over and it’s time to start thinking about a new course..

“There is no choice but to continue. I think this year is more than finished in the sense of considering it good. We never thought to have this amount of points and fight with Ferrari or MercedesWe are still ahead in the driver’s championships, which is really crazy, there is (in Ferrari) a car that has already taken 6 or 7 pole positions. So, that’s the positive part of this year,” argued Fernando Alonso after the event in Mexico this Sunday, still living ‘off the income’ in the general classification of his disastrous start to the year, to which he added 6 podiums in the first 8 races, fishing his sixth drawer in very difficult conditions in Canadaand then another in the race of hands and minds in the rain at Zandvoort when I no longer had a podium car.

Aston Martin’s performance dropped

Somehow, the Asturian’s hands and the incredible results in Montreal and Zandvoort can complicate the reading made by the last two drawers. At that time, The podiums in Canada and the Netherlands seem to be works created together between the Spanish class and the step forward that the car should have taken in the evolutions worn by Aston Martin on both tracks.

But subsequent results began to show signs that things were different. As McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes improved their cars with more evolution and with greater impact, the green car moved away from the podiums.. And not only that, The team admitted that the evolutions carried out on the track did not have the expected effect. In the simulator and wind tunnel, they worked. On the track, they caused side effects in his car that caused his strength to be affected.

“Our competitors have improved more than us and jumped the gap between us and Red Bull,” he said. Mike Crackboss of Aston Martin in August. “These vehicles are so complex that any change will affect other parts of the vehicle; have side effects. There are very few changes you make to the car that works in isolation. We made the change early in the season and we didn’t expect it to have some of the side effects it did. It wasn’t until after a few races on different types of circuits that we realized how it was influencing the car,” Krack stated. That last sentence says a lot. It’s hard for the team to understand that a car th -2 in Canada, the The following weekend he was 5th in Austria, and then 7th in Great Britain. The changing conditions of some races did not help either, which could complicate the analysis of happened

Then it came Hungary, where much hope was placed on the green car due to its theoretical initial strengths. But the ‘failure’ was huge. In a race marked in red on the calendar, Aston Martin was not competitive.

After Belgium, came Zandvoort, another tricky appointment. Improvements came to that circuit, but it was the pilot’s hands and his ability to adapt to changing conditions that made the difference. After that, already in Monza, Fernando Alonso highlighted to MD something important in this whole story: Aston Martin’s reaction, which brings evolutions that seem to work. That was something that calmed Alonso ahead of next year’s project. It said a lot about the team’s ability to react.

“Man, the car leaves me more calm after Zandvoort than before Zandvoort. I always have confidence in the team and I think after the step made last winter I always hope that this winter will be another good winter for Aston Martin and for development. We got a little lost in the right direction in July and were a little confused as to what the vehicle was sending us. This also coincides with a big improvement from other teams and may encourage panic, but we are calm. The only thing is if the best ones from Zandvoort or the ones we bring are confirmed with results, it’s a bit of balm for the whole team and raises morale, not only for this year, but also for next year.”the Asturian told this newspaper in Monza.

This move could show that Aston Martin has the capacity to react at the factory, an important element for what is to come and the ambitious project they have at Silverstone. If they want to fight for big things, they must stand on that point of difference.

The team has undergone fewer evolutions throughout the year as it is still a group in full growth. But showing such a reaction is reassuring. At Aston Martin they always repeat that all the innovations they brought to the track in the second part of the World Championship are important to learn in order to create the 2024 car. Everything they learn, they can apply. But, the ‘improvements’ are not such ‘improvements’. And what is encouraging, today is not a good sign for next year.

The doubts of the last two Grand Prix

Aston Martin arrives in Singapore, a race where it needs to shine big in Monaco style. But this is the biggest blow of reality. The strong points of the car at the beginning of the year are no longer powerful weapons for the English car. Alonso was 15th. AND With 5 appointments left, the team showed improvements that came late, where they wanted to turn their situation around.

These evolutions come in a delicate triplet of races, because the first two races are not the best to try new things.

In Austin, the weekend is a sprint and there is only one hour to try Free Practice. Before the race they decided to destroy the parc ferme and optimize the set up while their rivals had cars with settings made in several Free Practice sessions, which explains the good race pace compared to their opponents, and certainly the result can hide the real shortcomings of the new package.

He came to Mexico with hope. But the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a particular track where it is not ideal to attempt improvements due to lower air density due to altitude. And the package didn’t work.

It is also not good news that Aston Martin chose to make a comparison of the new aerodynamic package with the previous one, using two of the Austin race (one of Stroll’s car and the other of Alonso’s). That should serve to draw conclusions. But a week later, they want to repeat the comparison in the race in Mexico. That shows doubt.

Three races left

There are only three races left and Alonso just needs to continue the fight to maximize the performance of his car, which started on the track, and is now a difficult car to drive, with a lot of whiplash, nerves and made by the driver of Oviedo the two. spinning all weekend in Mexico.

But above all, the Spaniard, with optimism, continues to push so that the whole team can once again find the key to the car next year. and learn from the mistakes made this year in development. Next year, with a new factory that should operate at higher performance as the months go by (they launched it in the middle of the year), the team will have to continue taking steps forward. Aston Martin is a new project that should continue to grow. 2024 is unknown.