Fernando Alonso has said that Aston Martin are looking at a defensive drive for the 2023 British Grand Prix as the team hopes to regroup in the races after Silverstone.
Aston Martin experienced a difficult qualifying around Silverstone, as Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q2, whilst Alonso‘s best effort was only enough for ninth on the grid.
The AMR23 appeared to struggle in all three parts of qualifying as neither driver could get within half a second of the fastest time in each segment, something Alonso believes is down to the car not suiting tracks such as Silverstone.
“I think it is a bit track specific.” Alonso told select members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “So we have to remain calm, two races ago in Canada we were very strong and were fighting for the win.
“So you know, we’re struggling here. It’s a defensive race tomorrow to try to score some points, whatever is available and in Hungary, hopefully a new race for us.”
Aston Martin have struggled in Spain, Austria and Britain, perhaps due to the power-dependency of the tracks and the lack of braking zones compared to other circuits meaning that the Aston cannot maximise it’s exceptional stopping performance.
Alonso added: “We need to keep working, to understand a few qualifying sessions on circuits we were not competitive – Barcelona, Austria, Silverstone.
“All three of them seems a little bit similar in the way of track characteristics so we need to understand that.”
Alonso happy for McLaren
It’s fair to say that Alonso‘s two stints with the McLaren team had some bumps in the road, with the Spanish driver’s rivalry against Lewis Hamilton in 2007, and a disappointing power unit from 2015 to 2017.
But Alonso had nothing but praise for his old team, who produced a stunning second and third result in qualifying – their best since the 2008 British GP.
“They’ve been very fast, so yes, they deserve the position,” Alonso added. “It’s not a casuality [the weather conditions], they’ve been fast and they’re improving so I’m happy for them.”
