Aston Martin does not have high hopes for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Although the team is leaking information about improvements to the configuration of the AMR25, it is not expected that the car will make any progress in this race, where the track conditions and the quality of Fernando Alonso are the only trump cards being played by the team.
Aston Martin and the Bahrain F1 GP
Aston Martin has started the season as one of the worst cars on the grid. This is evidenced by the race results, although with some unexpected points achieved by Lance Stroll that have nothing to do with the performance of the car. For the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team wants to try out new parameters based on the data obtained in the first three races, but there are no high hopes that the AMR25 will make a qualitative leap over the weekend.
Andy Stevenson, Aston Martin’s sporting director, talks about the options for this weekend, and predicts that the decisions made from the garage will be important in order to optimize the results.
“It’s a very abrasive track and it opens the door to different strategies. Lance and Fernando will have to manage it well.” ‘We must focus on the race and optimize the performance of the car to compete as best as possible.”
Given the equality in the midfield, the configuration and conditions of each track can be decisive in gaining a place. ’The midfield is very even, as we expected. Depending on the circuit, the order varies, and in the first races nothing is clear”.
If you improve for the Bahrain GP
But beyond the new configurations that can be carried out during the weekend, the package of updates will not yet reach the cars, something that is getting closer, but they will still have to wait.
Andy Stevenson says that “we are not far from the first updates by the teams. It will add another dynamic”. This closeness refers to Europe, where the new package of improvements for Aston Martin is expected, to be more specific, at the Italian GP to be held on May 18th in Imola, where the team hopes to recover several tenths that will allow them to move up the grid.
Aston Martin’s options in Bahrain
After the words of Andy Stevenson and what Fernando Alonso said after the Japanese GP, it is not expected that there will be many improvements for the Bahrain GP. Aston Martin starts as the ninth car on the grid, but with a good set-up and suitable track conditions, the car could fight to be the seventh or sixth car on the grid.
That’s where Fernando Alonso comes in. If he can make that slight improvement, the Asturian driver could be in a position to get into the top 10 and thus be able to get the first world championship points in his record and add to Aston Martin’s total.
It won’t be easy, reality is what it is, and as Alonso said, now “we’re not even in the top 18. However, every weekend will be a new challenge for all the teams, including Aston Martin, and whoever manages to make the best configuration will have more options in a very tight midfield. Until the best teams arrive in Europe, it’s time to grit their teeth and fight, accepting that at the moment the AMR25 is one of the worst cars on the grid and that only the skill of Fernando Alonso can cover up the team’s shame.