Fernando Alonso could only qualify a disastrous 15th for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix in was another shocking day for Aston Martin as he explained the loss of form whilst the pressure ramps up on their lead designer.
Ever since the 42-year-old Spaniard committed his future to Lawrence Stroll’s team, Alonso and Aston Martin‘s form has plummeted leading to Dan Fallows to come under serious pressure as the Canadian billionaire begins to court Adrian Newey.
And at the Red Bull Ring, he admitted there isn’t much hope of things getting better for the green-liveried team until the 2024 Hungarian GP in July at the earliest, with the car not only being slow but appearing to become undrivable too.
“It’s been a very difficult weekend and it’s going to be difficult at Silverstone as well,” Alonso told media after qualifying 15th in Austria. “I’m a bit repetitive, because we’ve been saying it for several races now but F1 is like that.
“It was difficult, we pushed to the maximum, and we have made some set-up changes to the car, and we see that it doesn’t change either. It’s not a setup problem, it’s a problem of the car, we have to improve it.
“As I said in Spain, we have understood the direction a little, but we have a trio of races, where there has been no time to do anything, and we have to suffer a little. We are way over the limit of the car. We tend to qualify quite well this year. I tried to push the car to the limit today and I had two big scares.”
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Alonso gambles on better form in Hungary
Alonso had moments at Turns 7 and 10 in Spielberg as he tried frantically to push through for a surprise Q3 appearance leaving him rooted in 15th-place whilst Lance Stroll was stuck in 17th as Aston Martin look to be the eighth-fastest car on pace.
At the 2023 Austrian GP, that loss of form was unthinkable after the team had just qualified in sixth and seventh, around half a second off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, but one year on, they’re staring at a 1.3-second gap to the world champion.
But there could be hope on the horizon as the team bids to fix the problems that seem to originate all the way back at the 2023 Canadian GP, as they will bring an upgrade to the final round of the 2024 F1 season before it heads for a month-long break.
“We are going to bring something in Budapest,” Alonso added to the media. “But I think it’s not focusing on Budapest, it’s the whole year. We don’t know if it’s going to be the definitive solution, but we are working.
“Today the team, since the end of the Sprint Race, have changed from top to bottom the car. The mechanics have not even had time to eat. We went out to the time trial and we tried again. There is no rest until we are fighting for front positions.”
