With just a few hours to go before Fernando Alonso gets into the car for Free Practice 2 in Bahrain (he will not be taking part in Free Practice 1, this will be done by the third driver, Felipe Drugovich), Aston Martin has confirmed that the AMR25 has not been improved in any way for this F1 GP, so it will have to fight hard to be able to score any points.
Aston Martin with no improvements
During the week, after the poor performance of the AMR25 in the Japanese Grand Prix, there had been speculation that Aston Martin might bring some new features to the car for the Bahrain Grand Prix. With the exception of some changes to the parameters of the car and the wings, with which they hope to improve on the previous race, the team has confirmed that there will be no improvements to the car, and so they will have to endure another weekend in which only the skill of Fernando Alonso and any incidents during the race could ensure that the team finishes the race in the points.
Aston Martin’s confidence for Bahrain
However, Aston Martin has not given up hope for the Bahrain GP. They do not expect to draw many conclusions from free practice 1, as the track conditions will be totally different to those for the race (which is why many teams, including Aston Martin, have opted to use test drivers). However, Free Practice 2 will be held under conditions similar to those of the race, and they hope that, with the data collected in the first three races, plus the pre-season data at this same circuit, they will be able to adjust the car to optimize it in the best possible way.
Andy Cowell, the team boss, is confident of not repeating the mistakes of the last race, where he admits they failed in the configuration of the car.
“The challenge is to see ourselves stronger on Friday. On Friday (in Japan), we thought we had tuned the car better than in previous races. And then came Saturday, qualifying, and Lance and the car started to jump around. And the race went on from there.
“I think we have a little more performance now. That said, we’re not fighting for wins. We’re a long way from that, so we have a lot of work ahead of us. Right now, we don’t have enough pace. We seem to have a hard time getting into Q3.”
Fernando Alonso hopes for improvement
Fernando Alonso has expressed the same opinion as his team boss. He is hopeful that the team will find the right configuration for the weekend and, given the level of equality on the grid, he hopes that this will be decisive in enabling them to improve on the grid and be able to fight for points on Sunday.
“It’s all very close, the championship is very long and we won’t give up.” ”We’ve learned a few things in the first three races. The slow corners and top speed are possibly a weakness.”
The Spaniard was also confident about the work from the factory, and hopes that the improvements will arrive as soon as possible to return Aston Martin to the middle of the grid.
“We are motivated to work harder and bring new parts to every race we can. We are not going to give up,” insists the driver.
Aston Martin faces the Bahrain GP with urgency. They are not being asked to make a qualitative leap that will put them among the best, but they are being asked not to be the worst car on the grid. In Japan they were, and only the great individual performance of Fernando Alonso, who almost managed to get the AMR25 into the points, saved the team from embarrassment. They believe that they can do no worse and that they can only improve, so we’ll see if they succeed.