Fernando Alonso arrived at the Chinese Grand Prix weekend with his motivation sky high, claiming that he feels just as fast as he did the first time he arrived at the Shanghai circuit. However, the Asturian driver soon slowed down and was unable to improve on his 11th position in the Sprint Qualifying. This time, one tenth of a second off the pace, he finished 13th, with a last attempt insufficient to pass to Q3.
Aston Martin has already made it clear on many occasions that sprint weekends are not a priority for them. It may be more of a spectacle for audiences and fans, but they focus on Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race. However, on this occasion, qualifying did not go as expected either.
Qualifying did not go well for Alonso
The weekend started quite well for the Spaniard. His time in Q1 was stratospheric, putting him second at the start. The track was improving significantly, but he didn’t have to do another lap, it was more than enough time to make it through to Q2. He finally set the ninth fastest time in that session, with his mind on the next round.
But disappointment came in Q2: Aston Martin decided to go for one lap, rushing the end of the session, seeing how the track was improving with each lap. The lap seemed good, but at the finish line he was overtaken by Stroll. He set the eighth fastest time, but Tsunoda, Antonelli and Russell pushed him down to eleventh place, a disappointing eleventh place.
The Silverstone team is a long way from that 2023 car that was fighting for the top spots. Now, getting into Q3 seems to be the short-term goal. A goal that was not achieved in China. Although in the sprint classification Stroll managed to get through to SQ3 and Alonso was 11th, in the normal classification they are even further back. 13th place for the Spaniard and 14th for Lance Stroll.
Alonso, optimistic for the race
Despite the qualifying and the tests that the team is still carrying out, Fernando Alonso showed a certain optimism after the changes made after the race in this morning’s sprint, in which he finished tenth: “Maybe the car wasn’t as fast as it was this morning, so hopefully this will be compensated for in tomorrow’s race with less tire degradation”. “We made some configuration changes to improve the graining we had on the front tires this morning. In qualifying, obviously, you can’t check; we’ll see tomorrow,” he explained. ‘This morning we looked a bit more competitive and maybe it seemed possible to get a car into Q3 (the final qualifying round for the race),’ he lamented.
Andy Cowell wants more
Despite the fact that many Formula 1 experts even rank Aston Martin as the eighth best team on the grid, Andy Cowell wants at least one podium finish from Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the 2025 season. “We want to do well, we want to score a lot of points in every race we go to, and every time we don’t, we’re disappointed,” says the green team boss.