Fernando Alonso reckons even one point in F1 Dutch GP was too much for Aston Martin, noting that they are the seventh best team as of now.
It was another difficult run for Aston Martin in F1 Dutch GP at Zandvoort, especially in the race rather than qualifying where they ended up in the Top 10 with both the cars. The grand prix, though, saw both Alonso and Lance Stroll lose places at the start.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was the gainer this time, with the Haas pair also close to them in the fight. While Stroll couldn’t get through, Alonso managed to a score a point which the Spaniard reckoned was also a bit too much for the car they have.
He puts Aston Martin to be the seventh fastest team right now. “Yeah, probably even one point is a little bit too much for the pace we had,” said Alonso to media. “But we did a good qualifying and started in P7 obviously, which gave us the possibility to score this point. We need to get better.
“There are a couple of races already that we are struggling to keep up with some of the midfield teams. We need to understand why and we need to get better. I think it didn’t change much after the break, Budapest we were fighting with Yuki in the last lap. In Spa, I think Williams and Alpine were faster than us, but we did one-stop strategy and we beat them on the strategy.
“And in Zandvoort, I think Alpine and Haas were faster than us, so overall we are seventh fastest team and we need to get better for sure,” summed up Alonso, who stressed that Aston Martin’s qualifying remains its strength as he wants the team to be in the higher midfield position as they started out the 2024 F1 season at.
“Qualifying is our strength this year, we have been very fast in qualifying and again in this kind of circuit, it is difficult to overtake, so two cars in Q3 is normally a good sign,” said Alonso. “In qualifying we were a little bit better than what we should be and the race is a reality, as I said, nothing has changed in the last 3-4 races.
“We cannot forget from where we come from Spa, without one-stop strategy we were P12 and P13, in Zandvoort we are P10, so nothing new but still disappointed for us. And we need to get better, understand the car better, we need to bring some new parts for the next races and try to be where we started the year.
“We were not fighting with the Top 4 teams but we were couple of tenths clear of the midfield in that middle position and we want to be back there by Abu Dhabi,” summed up Alonso. Interestingly, he thinks that McLaren, McLaren and Ferrari remain in the prime position for wins and podiums in the races to come.
“I think the top four teams, maybe Mercedes, are a little bit up and down, but McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari, they are podium contenders every weekend,” Alonso said. The next two races [not including the Azerbaijan GP between them], for example, Ferrari should be the car to beat. What we saw last year in Monza and Singapore, Leclerc’s win in Monaco this year, for Singapore, I think they will be the favourites.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-dutch-grand-prix-verstappen-jumps-norris-to-take-the-lead.1808365125618238557
Here’s how F1 Dutch GP panned out
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