F1: Fernando Alonso Reflects On 'Very Difficult' Weekend For Aston Martin in Australia

Fernando Alonso reflected on a "very difficult" weekend at the Australian Grand Prix for the Aston Martin team.

Avinash Kumar

Updated Mar 27, 2024, 23:41 IST

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso

Photo : X (previously Twitter)

Fernando Alonso has admitted that it was a "very difficult" weekend at the Australian Grand Prix for the Aston Martin team while adding that they had struggled for pace despite ultimately scoring a double point finish.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Alonso made ground during the race after starting from P10 on the grid and was running in P6 as the event reached its latter stages, though faced pressure from a chasing George Russell behind.

After getting close to Alonso on the penultimate lap, Russell lost control of his Mercedes and crashed out of the running. Both Alonso and Russell were later summoned to the stewards.

Eventually, Alonso was handed a drive through penalty - converted to 20 seconds being added to his race time - as well as three penalty points for what was deemed to be “potentially dangerous” driving.

This dropped the two-time world champion from P6 to P8 in the final classification.

"Yeah, it was obviously a very difficult weekend for us in terms of pace," Alonso said after the Australian GP.

"The race, we were lucky with the [Virtual] Safety Car at the beginning with Lewis [Hamilton], and then the pit stops were great as well, so thanks to the strategy and a little bit of luck obviously we maximised the points. But we cannot forget that the pace was difficult the whole weekend," he added.

Asked whether the issues had been track dependent, the 42-year-old said," I don’t know, we need to understand more. Last year also was a little bit down, Australia, comparing the other race, so we need to improve."

Despite the pace problems, Aston Martin still saw both drivers come home with points.

Lance Stroll gained a position early on from his original starting place of P9 and, after a relatively quiet race, ended the day in P7, which later became P6 courtesy his team mate's penalty.

"It was a pretty lonely race. But good to pick up some points," Stroll said.

Asked whether the result had been the maximum based on the car’s current level of performance, the Canadian responded: "I think so, yeah."

With Mercedes scoring no points at the Australian GP given the retirements of both Hamilton and Russell, Aston Martin had initially put themselves ahead of the Silver Arrows in the fight for fourth place of the constructors’ championship. However, Alonso's penalty later saw them slip back to fifth on 25 points.

Despite the penalty, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack sounded a positive note about the team's performance.

"A strong race in Albert Park today and we have scored 12 championship points. Full credit to both drivers, who converted our grid positions into points, making use of two very different tyre strategies," Martin said.

"Lance has driven well all weekend and carried that form through to the chequered flag. Fernando's race benefitted from the Virtual Safety Car - it was surprising to see him drop to P8 with the post-race penalty, but we have to accept the decision. This will not distract from a positive day. The calls from the pit wall were spot on and operationally the whole team has been excellent," he added.

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