The improvements made by Aston Martin have been evident since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. However, it seems that only Fernando Alonso has felt the benefits of these improvements, as Lance Stroll has only managed to get the car into Q3 in one of the races, before finishing at the back of the grid on Sundays, while the Spaniard has accumulated four races in the top ten, finishing two Sundays in the points. Many are wondering about the reasons for such a difference between the two drivers, and some are comparing it to the difference between Verstappen and his respective teammates.
Alonso, far superior to Stroll
It’s curious to look at the F1 driver standings and see Stroll above Fernando Alonso. The truth is that the Canadian knew how to take advantage of the incidents in the first two races of the year to score points, but nothing since then. Fernando Alonso has outperformed him in every aspect, and the Canadian’s performance now seems to be more mental. After the improvements, the Oviedo native is beginning to consolidate his position in the middle of the grid, while his teammate continues to trail behind, unable to feel the improvements to the car.
“I really don’t feel any difference in the car. Maybe (Alonso) has achieved good results and he feels good with the car, but I don’t know. Today I felt very slow again,” he said after the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I have to look at it, I don’t know, but I would say there is nothing positive. The truth is, there isn’t. I have nothing positive to take away from the day. I know we are slow.”
Andy Cowell praises Alonso’s work
Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell, spoke to colleagues from the newspaper As and talked about the great work Fernando Alonso is doing and the reasons why he is managing to get the most out of the AMR25, which is putting him on the fifth row of the grid, at least, in recent races.
“Fernando has found a way to get great performance in qualifying. We still have a difficult car to drive.” “The Imola package has helped us, and it also helps us understand the car better. With the approach from the factory and the circuit, plus the improvement, there is help. But Fernando has been able to push it even further.”
Fernando Alonso squeezes the most out of the AMR25
Fernando Alonso himself is the first to acknowledge that the AMR25 has improved since Italy, but that it is still far from being a good car. However, he believes that the new parts help him understand the car’s behavior, which is essential to be able to take risks and get the most out of it.
“It seems like a habit to be in the points now, but it’s because we’re qualifying well. If we hadn’t finished sixth on the grid in Canada, we might not have finished in the points. There were some really fast cars in the race, the Williams, the Haas, surprisingly Esteban (Ocon) was up there at the front and also Hulkenberg, who came out of nowhere to fight for the points. If we start 12th or 13th, we’re not going to score points.
We’re on a fine line between scoring points and not scoring points. Lately, the qualifying sessions and the races have gone well for us, but we can’t take anything for granted, we have to keep working.“ He acknowledges that ”the weakest point is on Sunday. There are races where we are two or three tenths behind the top teams on Saturday, but then on Sunday we finish a minute behind them.
We have to improve, no matter what, on Sundays.“ ”If we start 12th or 13th, we’re not going to score points. We’re on a fine line between scoring points and not scoring points. Lately, the qualifying sessions and races have gone well for us, but we can’t take anything for granted. We have to keep working.”
Fernando Alonso once again proves that he is not just another driver, that he understands the cars and that this allows him to get the most out of the car and extract maximum power. Meanwhile, Stroll remains lost, not knowing how to handle the situation and showing that he is far from his best, when he was beating another world champion like Vettel before Alonso’s arrival.