Fernando Alonso states the weak points that Aston Martin had in F1 2023 and some of it brought due to the developments.
Aston Martin started off F1 2023 in a way that no one imagined them to. They were nowhere in 2022 but secured regular podium finishes courtesy Alonso at the start of this year. They clearly looked to be the second best team behind Red Bull.
Even better than Mercedes and Ferrari at times. But as the season progressed, the dip started to come where McLaren leapfrogged them. Since then, they never recovered as they eventually lost out to the British team for fourth after string of average results.
Alonso described the weakness as a common problem of the grid where the car had a narrow performance window. But interestingly, when asked if that happened due to some of the updates, the Spaniard agreed to it while putting a caution note.
While once again terming it as a common issue, Alonso stated that when one tries to find extra performance on one side of the car, there is a sacrifice which narrows the performance window. That is the spiral that Aston Martin went into.
“I think we need to find some consistency, maybe some of the weak points is the car has to operate in a very narrow window, it’s the same with everybody but it seems we are struggling a little bit,” said Alonso to media. “It would be nice if we can perform always at a stable level and next year see if we can improve the straight line speed.
“I think that was the under performance in numbers, our weak point always was that we were a little bit too slow on the straights and if we want to be as fast as the others, we need to drop too much the rear wing and we ended up slow on the corners as well, so that was probably the loop we could not go out this season.
“Yes, I think [it was] a consequence a little bit of the development of the car. But as I said, it’s the same for everybody. When you try to extract that little bit extra on the performance of the car, you need to sacrifice some areas to gain in some others, so you start narrowing the window. I think we have some ideas for next year and everything should be better,” summed up Alonso.
When asked if the consequence has now helped them to understand what can work and what cannot, Alonso had affirmation to it. But he also cautioned that there is no set pattern as things continue to move and one thing now could be different six months down the line.
“I think there are clear indications of some parts of the car that they were underperforming for a few events,” said Alonso. “They were also different philosophies on the pitlane, but also for us in the way you try to extract the performance of these cars. And I think now with all the experiments and all the knowledge of this year, we think we understand better the direction to develop the car.
“But these things are moving constantly – I don’t think that there is a magic bullet and a recipe to develop the car. If so, it would be very easy for everyone. But things that you maybe think now and trust now, in six months’ time because maybe the trend on the pitlane is to maybe move the airflow in a different way, they get outdated and very quickly.
“So we need to keep an eye [on things],” summed up Alonso, who added about some strengths too which helped the team. “The strength was tyre degradation,” he stated. “I think Sundays the car is always very strong. Execution of the strategy, motivation of the team. We are a happy team; we are a young team. We are celebrating every result as a win and this energy is important to keep for next year.”
Here’s F1 2023 teams’ tier order: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-teams-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/
Here’s 10 team bosses selecting Top 10 of F1 2023
Here’s 19 drivers selecting Top 10 drivers of F1 2023
Here’s Fernando Alonso on fighting Mercedes, Ferrari
Here’s Aston Martin extending Aramco deal
Here’s Fernando Alonso on best 2023 races and deserved win that didn’t come
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