Fernando Alonso says his motivation for second half of F1 2024 is about consistency in the Top 10, as he doesn’t call the situation as frustrating.
Having had a solid start to its 2023 F1 campaign, Aston Martin has had a spiral down the order to find themselves fighting to stay ahead in the midfield pack. They are in no man’s land as of now, neither in the Top 4 pack, nor in the last four.
Even though they are hiring some key personnel, their updates haven’t worked up straight and they have had to take alternative routes to sustain itself. It isn’t frustrating for Alonso, though, who is still chasing his third F1 championship.
He thinks it is just the nature of the sport where there can be only one winner. “I would not call it frustration,” said Alonso. “I think it’s the nature of the sport. At the end of the day, we are not happy with our position, that’s for sure. But in December, only one guy will be happy.
“And probably the second guy will be more frustrated than me in Abu Dhabi. And the third guy and the fourth and things like that. So that’s the nature of the sport and I will be surprised if as I said… Max has a good advantage. I’m enjoying the journey, let’s call it like that.
“We want to be champions, we want to be competitive next year and also take the big opportunity in 2026. And it’s no time to be frustrated, it’s time to enjoy the process of becoming a big team,” summed up Alonso, whose motivation for the second half of 2024 F1 season is being consistent in the Top 10 in both qualifying and race.
Aston Martin has had an up and down season and only showed glimpses of performances, but Alonso wants consistency. “I mean, the motivation is just hoping for a good second part of the year, which means to have a consistent car in the Q3 and the Top 10,” he said. “I think we’ve been a little bit up and down, unfortunately.
“Barcelona, we were not the fifth fastest team. Austria, we were quite bad as well. We were the seventh or the eighth fastest team. I don’t want to hopefully see that again. I want to be in the top part of the midfield, just behind the top four teams. And then slowly maybe close that gap to the top four teams.
“Maybe this year is going to be difficult, because there are not many upgrades for anybody coming. But we need to find the direction. We need to find the path for next year as well. And this second part of the year is going to be important to keep the momentum for 2025, so this is I think for me and for the whole team the biggest motivation from now on,” summed up Alonso.
Here’s Dan Fallows on Aston Martin being an exciting project still
Here’s more on Adrian Newey and Aston Martin
Here’s Fernando Alonso on 2024 disappointment
Here’s Stoffel Vandoorne undertaking Pirelli test
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