There will be quite a few empty spots on the grid for the United States as four drivers are going to be starting from pit lane on Sunday afternoon.
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen have all been taken out of parc fermé as Aston Martin and Haas seek to improve their race cars on a disappointing weekend for both so far.
Speaking after a difficult Friday and Saturday, Alonso stated points looked impossible for the Silverstone-based squad. Both Aston drivers got knocked out in Q1 on Friday, and they only managed Q2 appearances in the sprint shootout.
The two-time World Champion was a very distant P13 in the sprint, while Stroll retired due to brake issues.
“Obviously it is disappointing,” stated Alonso.
“You just try to complete the laps and hopefully score some points, but I think it’s going to probably be no points this weekend for us, so it is painful.
“Obviously we took a lot of risk bringing the new package with only one free practice and we are paying the price of that in the worst way possible.
“We are here to win, not to just score a few points every weekend, so sometimes we have to take these bold decisions and hopefully the price we will repay at the end of the year if we have more information about this package.”
For today’s race, Alonso will go back to the older-spec package. Stroll stays with the new one as the team tries to learn what works and what doesn’t.
As for Haas, their big upgrade package has proven to be somewhat mixed so far. Although the car still looked quite competitive over a single lap, the high tyre degradation reared its ugly head in the sprint yesterday.
For that reason, the team has decided to make set-up changes for the Grand Prix in an attempt to try and help their drivers.
These pit lane starters help out three drivers. Ricciardo moves up a spot to P14, Albon and Sargeant gain three and four places respectively and they’ll start 15th and 16th.
Magnussen, Hülkenberg, Alonso and Stroll will be the order of the cars starting from pit lane due to the qualifying order.
Photo credit: MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
