Formula 1 is back after the first day of free practice at the Australian Grand Prix, and we can confirm the step forward of Aston Martin‘s Fernando Alonso, making up for what was lost last season, when they started as the best fifth team on the grid and finished as one of the worst.
Aston Martin returns to the midfield
The data that we can extract from these free practice sessions is by no means definitive, but it does give us a small sample of what we can expect this season. The AMR25 driven by Fernando Alonso finished in eighth place in Free Practice 1, but was just 0.484 seconds off the best time set by Lando Norris (1:17.252).
During free practice 2, where the drivers tested the soft tires, Alonso could only set the thirteenth time, but only 0.891 behind Charles Leclerc, who stopped the clock at 1:16:439. In this case, Lance Stroll improved the Spaniard’s time by 41 hundredths, finishing ninth.
Aston Martin instability
The step forward for Aston Martin is confirmed, not as much as we would have liked, as are the problems with the car that were already anticipated. The car is much faster per corner, but the instability of the AMR25 is also evident, and it will take some time to tame the new car.
During the race time simulation, the difference between Aston Martin and the top cars was seen. Fernando Alonso set times of 1:22, while the drivers expected to be fighting for the races were lapping a second faster than the Asturian driver.
Stroll, closer
Another piece of good news on this first day for Aston Martin is seeing Stroll with times similar to Fernando Alonso. In fact, he set a better time than the Spaniard in the second session with soft tires, 4 hundredths better. The Canadian driver’s times show more clearly the step forward for Aston Martin, given that last season only the magic of the Spaniard prevented the team’s season from being a disaster. Seeing him post similar times to Fernando Alonso indicates that the car is better than last year and that, if the team is able to make the right decisions during the season, we could see the AMR25 with more ambitious objectives than just leading the midfield.
Maximum equality and reason for hope
In this sense, it is worth highlighting the great equality during this first day. Aston Martin managed to finish both sessions less than a second behind the best time. Every tenth of a second that can be improved can mean a jump of three or four places on the grid. This gives us reason to be hopeful for tomorrow’s qualifying.
Fernando Alonso has accustomed us to performing magic, especially in the qualifying sessions, setting impossible times in a single lap. We’ll see if tomorrow he is capable of treating us to one of those laps and putting Aston Martin as far up the grid as possible. In principle, the team’s objective is to be able to enter Q3 and compete with the best in the last session before the race.
The Formula 1 World Championship is now underway and Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin have a lot to say this season. The improvement of the team is confirmed, but it is still too early to know how much the AMR25 has improved over last season. Tomorrow all the cards will be on the table and we will be able to know what the real options of the Spaniard are, not only in this Grand Prix, but also for the next races.