A very tough season for Aston Martin is about to end. They have not had a single podium in 2024, and the Silverstone-based team fell away in the car development race.
Aston Martin with a season to forget
Currently sitting 9th in the Drivers’ Championship, Alonso spoke on Thursday about this season for Aston Martin.
At the commencement of the 2024 season, Alonso and Aston Martin had high hopes for the season after a strong start in the first few races.
In combination with this strong start, Aston Martin had upgrades planned for the car that gave them the impression they would be fighting for podiums as the season went on.
However, they went backwards and have struggled to score points since the summer break. Alpine and Haas have comfortably outscored them.
“I’m happy to finish at least in the minimum requirements, but in a way we were hoping for more, especially at the beginning of the year we started strong and there were a couple of upgrades coming to the car, that we were dreaming to finish high on the season and maybe fighting for podiums or something.”
The 2023 season was a strong one for Aston Martin, with many top 10s and eight podium finishes thanks to the Spaniard. Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll finished 4th and 10th in the Driver’s Championship standings respectively.
Minimum target reached
Aston Martin had set the minimum expectations of securing 5th in the Constructors’ Championship — in which they secured — but for Alonso this wasn’t enough.
Simply meeting the minimum expectations was a relief for the Spaniard, but after his strong start to the season, he was expecting more.
“We cannot rate ourselves too high. I think we’ve been fighting with the tools we had on track and I think we maximised the results and I think to secure 5th place is the minimum we had to do in terms of expectations and after what we had last year.
“We didn’t achieve that, that’s the reality, so we were expecting a little bit more, but this is what it is, and hopefully next year we can achieve that.”
Formula 1 Power Rankings
The F1 Power Rankings leader board is regularly updated and shared on social media.
This is a ranking out of 10 for each driver at the completion of each Grand Prix weekend, which is then averaged into their “Power Ranking”.
Alonso was asked on Thursday whether this leaderboard is something that he sees.
While saying he has, the 32-time race winner took a swipe at it for how far off he feels it is, as he was also left puzzled by the fact Norris and Verstappen have the same ranking.
“I see it sometimes in the media, but this is useless. I only see the top 10 and I’m not there.
“I’m 9th in the Driver’s Championship with the 7th or 8th fastest car, and I think Lando and Max are equal in points. When you see that, you don’t pay any more attention.”
Alonso doubting the WDC chances of Verstappen
In Spain this year, Alonso made his prediction that Max Verstappen would surely take out his fourth World Championship this year.
After the 2023 where Verstappen relentlessly dominated, many people believed we would see a similar tale in 2024, especially as the Dutchman won four of the first five race.
Alonso admits he began to doubt his own predictions, once Verstappen was no longer in cruise control after the crushing win in Shanghai, and no longer in the fastest car as McLaren’s Miami update was a game-changer.
Red Bull also had some really bad weekends, such as Monza where they were the fourth fastest car on outright pace.
“I doubted, yes. When I saw the car being the third, fourth fastest car sometimes.
“When I saw McLaren being 1-2 in one of the races [Hungary] before the summer.
“Also, in Zandvoort, I think Lando won with 25 seconds off second or something like that.”
Like many others, the Spaniard had thought the title fight would be tight right up to Abu Dhabi. However, this was not the case.
It ended in Las Vegas after Verstappen accumulated enough points over Norris to be crowned champion. His legendary drive at the São Paulo GP was the killer blow.
Post-race in Las Vegas, Alonso was seen amongst other drivers giving the 27-year-old his congratulations.
“I thought the championship will be tight until Abu Dhabi, but then it was not tight because one driver was outstanding.”
