With an unchanged lineup of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, Aston Martin has kicked off the 2025 F1 season in a solid fashion with their AMR25 ahead of the Japanese GP on Sunday. A P6 and P9 for the Canadian in Australia and China has given his team ten points. They sit P7 in the Constructors’ Championship.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll discuss the performance of the AMR25 F1 car
Speaking in his print media session ahead of the F1 Japanese GP, Fernando Alonso reflected on the opening couple of rounds and believes Aston Martin sit in a similar position to the end of last season.
A brake failure took him out in China when points could have been on the table thanks to the DSQs post-race, and he crashed out of P10 in Australia, although gravel on the racing line certainly played a role in that.
“Yeah, some positives for sure, but some things to fix as well in the car.
“I think we’ve been more competitive probably in China than in Australia, but in both races we were fighting for points, which is more or less the same situation as we finished last year in Abu Dhabi. So I think the picture didn’t change much, just the teams are closer together.
“We need to maximise everything on the car, on the set-up, on the strategy. Everything has to be perfect every weekend if we want to score points.
“And yeah, I think that will be the picture for the remaining of the season probably.”
Alonso talks about the car characteristics of the AMR25 F1 car
From Miami onwards last season, Aston Martin slowly started to go in reverse. Despite adding more downforce to the AMR24, it became more difficult to drive and balance limitations occured in every part of the corner.
On a positive note, Fernando Alonso says things are better on that front and they try out more set-ups, too. The bad news? Slow speed corners continue to be a big thorn in the side for Aston Martin.
“Obviously, it’s early to say. I think we need more tracks and more different corners.
“But yeah, I would say that it’s still more or less the same characteristics in the car. The same strengths and weaknesses, maybe just reduces the window of operation of the car in a way.
“And we try to tackle some of the inconsistencies that we had last year from track to track and even from lap-to-lap. I think that’s better this year.
“I think we have a car that we can trust more and we can experiment a little bit with the set-ups and having the results that we want.
“But I think probably slow speed corners are still weaknesses of last year’s car and this year’s car.
“At the moment, Australia, China Sector 2 was OK. I think hopefully here in Japan, Sector 1 will be good.
“But it’s going to be a real test for us, maybe Bahrain or Monaco or these kind of circuits.”
Weaknesses inevitable no matter how good the car is
Alonso explained that in every scenario a weakness in the car will be found, even if you roll back the clock to his title-winning years.
Nonetheless, he is confident this year’s car is less peaky compared to 2024 over a weekend, and it gives the drivers more of a chance in races.
“Yeah, that’s the thing. You know, when you go faster and faster, there is always a weakness that you discover or something that you are not comfortable with.
“But this happens on any race car or even on a go-kart. You know, when you jump in a go-kart and you try to go faster and faster and over the limit, then suddenly the car is difficult to drive. So yeah, more or less it’s there.
“I have to say that last year we were dealing with a car that was very difficult. And some conditions were not giving the confidence to the driver to really push in qualifying.
“Sometimes we had a car that I remember to qualify here, P5 or something like that And then in the race being 12th or 13th fastest.
“So that car was, yeah, magically coming alive from time to time, especially on Saturdays.
“And I think this year’s car is a little bit more robust and is a little bit more predictable. So that’s a positive, I think, over the long term.”
Fernando Alonso targets P5 in the F1 standings
As the 2024 season went on, Aston Martin continued to go backwards. By the end of the year, they were arguably the second slowest or even slowest team at some venues. Luckily for them they had built up a comfortable lead in P5 in the opening rounds to the teams behind, such as Haas and Alpine.
The 43-year-old is hopeful Aston Martin F1 can reverse the trend of starting strongly in 2023 and 2024, before fading away towards the end of the year.
5th is the target this time around. Should they achieve it, that’ll be the third year in a row in that position.
“I think this championship is super long.
“We saw even last year, I think Alpine started the season dead last. We lapped them for the first two or three races. They were fighting for 6th at the end, but even closer to us, 5th at the end of the year.
“Anything can happen. Over 24 races, we have to finish the season strong.
“The last two years, we started quite good. Then we fell behind and finished the season a little bit less competitive. In a way, we want to do the opposite this year and finish the season strong.
“I’m still confident that we can still fight for 5th at the end of the year. But at the moment, there are some strong teams, Racing Bulls and Williams. Maybe they are ahead of everyone else in the midfield.
“Haas in China is proof that they are also very fast and probably 5th in China.
“To be in that position, we need to improve and that’s the aim.”
Stroll agrees with Alonso on the driveability improvement with AMR25 F1 car
Speaking in his own print media session on Thursday, Lance Stroll backed up Fernando Alonso and his assessment of the AMR25 vs the AMR24 F1 package concerning driveability.
However, he was quick to point out the team has not taken a step forward regarding pace.
“Yeah, I think we’ve improved that side of things for sure. We’ve made the car a little bit more driver-friendly.
“But there’s a lot of the weaknesses that were in the car last year are still there. And we know that.
“I think pace-wise we’re the same as last year. I don’t think we’ve made a step on actual performance.
“So yeah, it’s just about how to fix it.”
Expanding on its strengths and weaknesses, Lance Stroll says the AMR25 is competitive in the high speed but struggling in the low stuff, backing up the comments from Aston Martin F1 teammate Fernando Alonso.
“I think we’re better in the high speed corners than the low speed corners.
“So here [at Suzuka] there are some high speed corners, which is nice, but also some low speed. So we’ll see how that looks for us.
The 26-year-old expanded on the struggles in the slow corners.
“Just the grip [is bad in low speed]. I mean, just a little bit of balance.
“But it seems like the car just dies a lot in the low speed and we just don’t have the performance to carry the minimum speed and get on the power with the traction limitations we have. So yeah, all that kind of stuff.”
Trying to work on solutions
Despite new regulations coming in for 2026, Lance Stroll says the team is determined to make progress with the AMR25 and finish on a good, competitive note.
“I think we’re still all eager to find more performance and get in a more competitive spot. We’re all still scratching our heads and thinking how can we make the car better and more competitive.
“So there’s still that element of, I wouldn’t say frustration, but I would say eagerness and want to be better. Same as last year.”
