Alonso: The last two races are a “big wake-up call” for Aston Martin
A drop in competitiveness over the last two races of the championship should ring alarm bells at Aston Martin, believes Fernando Alonso, even though the team had made improvements.
Aston Martin brought a set of updates to Imola, as did many of its direct rivals, in the ongoing development game during the season, but the Silverstone-based team has not been able to make significant progress.
The AMR24 has also proved to be more difficult to set up and drive, with similar complaints from Alonso and his teammate Lance Stroll about the difficulty of keeping the car balanced in corners, shifting from oversteer on entry to understeer in the middle of the turn.
The Aston’s stubborn behavior was highlighted by Alonso’s unusual accident during the third free practice session at Imola, which disrupted the rest of his weekend. In Monaco, where confidence in the car is essential, Aston Martin did not fare much better, as both drivers failed to qualify in the top 10.
These two weekends have been crucial to understand our weaknesses, understand the car, improve », said Alonso, after finishing just outside the points. In difficulties, we always draw more conclusions than in victories, so we learn a lot for the rest of the year, 2025 and 2026. These two races have been a great awakening and this will be very beneficial for us.
Fernando Alonso indicated that he did not expect a quick turnaround, revealing that it will take a few races for the Greens to deploy their next update package. “We had some doubts after Imola and Monaco, where we didn’t manage to go fast, and we need to try to change this trend,” he said. “It will take us a few races before introducing a significant improvement to the car, but until then, we have to give it our all and we have to improve on the track to get results. There will be better days, worse days, and we have to stay united.”
Quoted on his opinion regarding the difficulties of the AMR24, Stroll replied: « It is definitely more difficult to maintain the balance of the car. A bit of oversteer on entry, a bit of understeer in the corner, driving on the curbs, just the usual things to continue working on. It is a slightly more delicate balance than the car we had last year. »
