After a mixed 2025 F1 Australian GP for Aston Martin, the Silverstone-based team, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll set their sights on better performances in the Chinese GP. Unfortunately, the team suffered a less-than-impressive Saturday, with Stroll and Alonso finishing the Sprint Race outside the points in P9 and P10 respectively. They then failed to make it out of the second round of the Qualifying session (Q2) and will start Sunday’s race from the seventh row of the grid, with Alonso in P13 leading Stroll (P14).
Alonso expected Aston Martin performance over the Chinese GP weekend
While speaking to the media after Saturday’s Qualifying Session, Alonso admitted the team had performed as expected, despite both drivers missing out on a Q3 appearance and failing to score points from the Sprint Race.
“I think we always expected this. You see where we are, you know. But it’s true that this morning we felt a little bit more competitive. Maybe one car was possible to be in Q3, but we couldn’t.”
He suggested that having only one practice session had worked in Aston Martin’s favour as it had limited other teams’ ability to fine-tune their set-ups ahead of the race.
“So, yeah, more laps in the weekend. All the people, some of the cars, they learn the circuit. They are fine-tuning the setup and then we fall behind them. So, it’s better when we do only one practice and we go into the race.”
Alonso hoping that improved tyre management will help Aston Martin gain positions in Chinese GP race
While Alonso claimed that Aston Martin had prioritised their tyre preparation during the Chinese GP weekend, he admitted that they had not mastered it.
“A lot in the tyre preparation. We were not perfect on that.”
He added that these deficiencies in their tyre preparation and management strategies and on-track traffic had cost Aston Martin their chance to fight for places in Q1.
“We were unlucky as well in some of the outlaps. We were heavily compromised by traffic and people overtaking us in the outlaps.“
The veteran driver claimed that the team had made some set-up changes to improve the front graining that they had struggled with in the Sprint Race. However, he added that these changes would not have had any noticeable effect in Qualifying and hopes to see improved pace in Sunday’s race.
“They were different philosophies and faster. But, you never know that. And the car, we made some setup changes intended to improve the front graining that we had this morning. And in qualifying, obviously, you cannot check.”
“We will see tomorrow, but maybe the car was not as fast as this morning. So, hopefully, it pays off in the race tomorrow with the second edition. But the race, we will see. It’s going to be difficult with this Qualifying , but we will try.”
Aston Martin performances at Chinese GP “a good effort” — Stroll
Lance Stroll echoed his teammate’s sentiments, stating that things had “come together” during the Chinese GP sessions. Reflecting on the team’s Friday performances, Stroll commented, “No, I think it all came together yesterday. I think today is more normal. (..) the laps were clean. You know, like every qualifying session, you can find half a tenth here, half a tenth there, a few tenths. The whole world comes together nicely, but, it was a good effort. “
“And I think yesterday we had a good session, maybe too good. And with that kind of session, one medium, one set of mediums, SQ1, SQ2, you know, you can always benefit if you go for a single push. Others do push-pull-push, you get it right kind of thing, vice versa. So, I think we benefited from that kind of thing yesterday. Yesterday and today, everyone has lots of sets of tyres, and you kind of pan out a little bit more in the normal position.“
Despite the less-favourable Qualifying session, the Canadian driver was optimistic about making positive progress in Sunday’s race. Though he and his teammate will start from the midfield, Stroll hopes that Aston Martin can make up positions and come away from the weekend with some points.
“Yeah, that was all good, that was all good. Hopefully we can, yeah, pick up some position tomorrow and try and get something out of it.”
“It’s not so much, no. I want to be positive and optimistic, but I think we’re on the other side of that. Well, the tyres tomorrow, obviously nobody’s tried them, so it’s a bit of a no-no.”
