Aston Martin has not been living up to expectations on race day this year. While the team has done a decent job in qualifying, the AMR24 has struggled on race pace.
In Monza, Fernando Alonso finished in P11. He missed out on a point by less than 0.2s following Kevin Magnussen’s 10-second penalty. On the road itself, he finished less than a second behind Alex Albon.
Due to concerns about their tyre degradation, Aston went for a two-stop. The two-time F1 World Champion had been running comfortably in P9 before that as they undercut Albon.
Speaking afterwards, Alonso was pleased with how they got everything right in the race.
“Well, today is much, much better than expected. I think the execution of the race was really good.
“For us, we got lucky with the start, very good start. We overtook Nico.
“And then we were running 10th, close to Albon, so we kept the pace, surprisingly, with the Williams, so happy with that. And then we undercut him, so we were running 9th for majority of the race.
“And then we opted for two stops. We could not make it on one with our tyre degradation. So, yeah, we tried to catch at the end.
“Eight tenths from Albon, one tenth from Magnussen. So P11, only one second away of P9, which is very painful to lose the points, because I think we deserve it in a way, with a well-executed race.
“But, yeah, the car is what it is at the moment, and we need to get better.”
The Spaniard expanded on the tyre woes they have been facing this season, huring them in the fight against Magnussen and Albon at Monza.
“We are quite hungry on tyres normally. We don’t have time for some corners.
“So we rely completely on the mechanical grip from the tyres. So we stress the tyres normally more than the others. That’s our problem on Sundays.
“So here, because he was between 1 and 2 [stops], we knew that for the Aston was 2.”
Alonso was racing Haas, Williams and RB on the day. He believes this should not be happening based on the team’s ambitions, even if it is acceptable not to be racing the top 4 at present.
He also discussed his own personal performance, explaining how he got everything out of the car and comfortably beat teammate Lance Stroll, as the duo wait for improvements from the technical department.
“Nothing we can do. I mean, we are in our team’s hands, and I think Lance and myself, we’re trying to do the best we can every weekend.
“One inspired weekend, like this from my side, I know it’s going to be completely anonymous — Monza 2024 from Alonso — but I think this year Lance and myself have been very close, two or three seconds away at the end of the race is always in front or behind.“
“And it was one of those weekends that I was a little bit better, and I was happy with the car and pushing to the level that maybe was beyond 100%, and that was P11. So yeah, disappointed about that.
“We need to understand that the big target is 2026. But at the same time, I think as a team, we could accept not been in the top 4 battle. They are top teams and they are well in front of us.
“But now to be behind Williams, behind Haas, behind Toro Rosso (RB), I think we need to raise the bar a little bit. We need to get better.”
Stroll, while keeping it very brief, mentioned that his race was what he expected, even though it was disappointing.
Such was the lack of pace, an attempt to go for fastest lap at the end on soft tyres saw him fall well short of it.
“No, that was more or less what we expected. Just the pace of the car is not there at the moment, especially this weekend here in Monza.
“We just have to try and bring upgrades.”
