Saturday proved to be a challenging day for Aston Martin at the Imola Grand Prix. The trouble began during the third practice session when Fernando Alonso crashed, causing the team to scramble to repair his car in time for qualifying.
Despite their efforts, Alonso was last as he took a trip through the gravel at turn 4 during Q1, though he was bumped up to nineteenth after Logan Sargeant lost a lap time. Lance Stroll fared slightly better, qualifying thirteenth but lacked a couple of tenths to make Q3.
The Silverstone-based team had high hopes for the weekend, especially since they had introduced new upgrades as part of their “aggressive plan” to improve performance after a disappointing start to the season. However, qualifying results fell quite a way short of expectations.
Reflecting on their performance so far at Imola, Lance Stroll affirmed the team’s disappointment with their qualifying results.
“Not the day we were hoping for, the weekend we were hoping for, with the upgrades we’ve brought, not competitive enough.
“I think everything was working, it’s just not good enough, so we keep pushing.”
He quickly dismissed doubts on whether these upgrades were a step backwards, emphasising how much the top teams pulled ahead of them in performance and that they need a lot more to regain the position they had at the start of 2023.
“I don’t think so, not a backward step, I think it’s where we are right now.
“It feels the same as it felt all year, we’ve brought upgrades, they might’ve helped a bit, but I think we need much more to catch teams further up the grid.”
“The other teams are looking competitive, and we’re just not competitive enough at the moment.”
He also detailed the problems that have been plaguing their current car.
“Downforce, and some balance behavioural stuff that we’ve been dealing with all year.”
When asked how the team plans to make a turnaround, he underscored its commitment to continuous development to improve as they are starting to struggle to make Q3.
“Keep bringing upgrades, keep putting downforce on the car, making it quicker, that’s the name of the game in Formula 1.”
