Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin needs to raise its bar after falling behind its immediate rivals in the pecking order.
Having had a difficult F1 2024 so far, Alonso has admitted that Aston Martin needs to raise its bar after falling behind its immediate rivals and away from the Top 4 in the order. It started on par with Mercedes, but has fallen behind in terms of pace.
He cites the example of McLaren who have made a big step to win F1 races now. “We need to be patient,” said Alonso to media. “We need to understand that the big target is 2026. But at the same time, I think as a team, we could accept not being in the top four battle – they are top teams and they are well in front of us.
“But now to be behind Williams, behind Haas, behind [RB], I think we need to raise the bar a little bit. We need to get better. I think we still have time to react, it is still September. McLaren improved in four months from last to first, or from last to podium [in 2023].
“So we have clear examples. Also, Mercedes started the same as us [this season]. We were level with Mercedes for the first four races, and they’ve won three races this year. So I’m not a fan of excuses,” summed up Alonso, who played down the significance of Adrian Newey’s reported joining Aston Martin in 2025.
He reckons it is not just one person who can changed things around. “Well, it’s still only rumours,” said Alonso. “And I think it’s not only a one-man job to fix things, so it’s more what we have now, and what we are producing. [We have to] understand what is going in the right direction, what is going in the wrong direction, and try to prepare for 2025 in a better way.”
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