Alonso: “We must understand that the great goal is 2026, but we can still react”

Fernando Alonso finished 11th in the Italian F1 GP at Monzaclinging to Magnussen’s rear wing and just one second out of 9th place. He was aiming for those points after riding for much of the race in ninth position, but his car continued to suffer extensive damage on Sunday, forcing him to retire a second time and return, remaining in brink of a prize that seems very difficult this weekend.

Fernando Alonso executed the race perfectly and made his car aim for points that the team did not expect. It all comes down to wear, something Alonso explained was done by how big his car was to pull the mechanical grip of the tires in the curves because it had less aerodynamic load than many of the rivals. this. The downforce is provided by the good parts, and that’s what Fernando is waiting for.

After the Italian GP,​​​​in his explanation to the press present at the circuit, including the MD, he first said that “we must understand that the great goal is 2026”, that is, the creation of a competitive car for to the great regulatory change to be implemented for that year. However, he maintained that the team must “improve” until then, starting in the final races with the long-awaited new package of evolutions that should arrive in the next races. Alonso is confident in this and assures that “it is not too late to react.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. We’re in the hands of the team and we try to do our best every weekend both Lance and I. A weekend where I’m inspired like this one on my side will go down as anonymous This year Lance and I are always close, two or three seconds ahead or behind and It was one of those weekends where I was a little bit better and I was happy with the car and I was able to raise the level, maybe over 100%, but that resulted in an 11th. “I’m disappointed about it,” he commented.

“We need to be patient and understand that the big goal is 2026. But at the same time, as a team, we must accept that we are not in the fight for the top four teams. They are top teams and they are ahead of us, but being behind Williams, behind Haas and AlphaTauri, I think we have to raise the level a little bit. “We have to improve.”

“I don’t think that the following street circuits will be better. I think that until we have an improvement in the car, this is what it is. It is not enough. It was not enough in Monza, it was not enough in Zandvoort, Spa or Hungary. So I don’t think there will be much change in Baku, Singapore or Austin unless we get new parts in the car. That’s the plan, The team is aware of the situation and is working as best it can. We stay united, we keep pushing forward. “Last week it was one point, today we are close to two points, and that will be our match.”he declared.

“But I think we still have time to react. It’s only the end of August or the beginning of September. McLaren has improved in four months from last to first or being on the podium, so we have clear examples.Mercedes started like us this year. We were level with Mercedes in the first four races and they have won three this year. “I’m not a fan of excuses,” he concluded.

CLOSE TO THE POINTS AND BETTER THAN EXPECTED

“We were lucky with the start, a very good start where we overtook Nico and then we were in tenth position, close to Alex Albon with the Williams, surprisingly able to keep up with the Williams, close to him, so I’m happy about that. Then we passed him with an undercut approach, so we were running in ninth place for most of the race, we tried to catch Alex at the end, finishing eight tenths behind him and 1.1 seconds behind by Magnussen So we finished 11th, one second behind 9th, which is very painful because I think we deserved those points with great-. executed race like today. “But the car is what it is at the moment, and we have to improve.”

DEGRADATION, A WEAK POINT IN ASTON MARTIN

“We’re expecting the race to be a two-stop race for us. We’re usually a bit hard on the tires of our car and we don’t have a lot of downforce in the corners, so we’re very dependent on the mechanical grip of the car. Tires .

ADRIAN NEWEY CAN AT ASTON MARTIN

“It’s all still just rumors. I think it’s not just one person’s job to fix things. It’s more on what we have now, what we’re producing, understanding what’s going in the right direction, what’s going in the wrong direction,.” and try to prepare 2025 in a better way.”

MAGNUSSEN LOSES CARD POINTS

“Regarding the penalty points, as we have discussed many times, they should be for dangerous behavior, something that represents a danger to the sport and so on. I think some of the points that Magnussen accumulated, I’m not sure, I don’t I don’t have the list here, but some are just for things like fast, white line, unsafe start… These kinds of things are part of racing, it’s a drive-through, a five-second penalty ., but safety penalties are a little difficult to understand.