The Aston Martin driver had definitely been coming into his home race with higher expectations than a P7, but he didn’t appear to be too displeased with the final result as he commented after the Spanish GP:
“We didn’t have the pace, so that was the biggest problem. It’s not that we were unlucky, or different strategies or anything like that. We were slow compared to the Mercedes as well on the soft [tyre], slow on the hard.”
The lack of speed strongly affected the Silverstone-based team, which then focused on damage limitation towards their rivals in their fight for a top 3 placing in the constructors’ championship. It was a partial success, considering that Mercedes scored a double podium but that Ferrari’s Leclerc didn’t manage to enter the top ten and Alpine only scored five points:
“We just concentrated on the Alpines, AlphaTauris, keeping up the pace with the Ferraris at the end. We outscored the Ferraris because they only scored with Carlos (Sainz, who was a distant fifth behind the Red Bull and Mercedes cars) but we lost points to Mercedes. They did a better job,” Alonso admitted.
The strategical decision of focusing on the “midfield fight” was a consequence of the excellent race form shown by Mercedes in the beginning of the race. Considering also the fact that Aston Martin hadn’t entered the Montmelo race track dead set on a tyre strategy, as per the Spanish driver’s words, the team opted for pitting as late as possible, in order to try and have much fresher tyres to overtake in the final stint.
That plan paid off for Alonso as he recovered to P7. If he had wanted to, he could have overtaken Stroll as well.
“At the beginning, we didn’t have a plan, to be honest, because we were not sure about the degradation. The first stint, George was so fast when he overtook me I think we changed our mind a little bit, and we didn’t want to run that close to the cars in front.”
“We just tried to extend the first stint and by doing so we also extended the second. We knew our opportunity was in the last 15 laps of the race, but not enough to fight at the front, just to fight the midfield,” he went on to explain.
However, Alonso isn’t fazed by the slight step backwards in the race due to the track specifics. Tyre degradation and difficulties in finding the right setup forced the whole team to much more work than in the previous rounds, as per the two times world champion’s words:
“The track was not the best for us. So we had to work a lot during the weekend to be happy with the car. We were always happy from FP1 where here we had to work. The upgrades, from the other people, I think maybe they didn’t show the full potential in Monaco, Miami so here we saw that maybe they are a bit stronger, but I’m not worried.”
Photo credit: Aston Martin F1 Team
The only issue he has with the GP weekend he’s left behind is the “mistake” he made in qualifying, which caused him to start in P9 and made the quest for his 33rd race win in Formula 1 exponentially more complicated:
“I regret yesterday my mistake. I thought all night if I could rewind and go again in qualifying, things will be different. That I cannot do, so I can only think now in Canada and I will use that motivation for a good weekend in Canada.”
The Q3 mishap also made Alonso much more careful during the actual race, which led him to being satisfied to end the race behind his teammate. It was Alonso’s first time outside the top 5 in a race in 2023, and the first time Lance Stroll finished in front of him. Overall it was a quiet but decent double points finish.
“It was 10 laps to the end, I had a little bit fresher tyres – but like one or two tenths faster than him, no more than that.
“I will not get crazy. I damaged one floor yesterday, I didn’t want to damage another one today, or he damages the floor or anything just try to secure the place. For us it’s the same: sixth and seventh, and seventh and sixth.”
He summed up, confident in his challenger and his abilities: “There’s going to be better weekends and worse weekends, and we will have our opportunity.
“I think in two weeks’ time we will see a completely different picture and hopefully we will fight with the Red Bulls soon.”
