At times, it seemed like we were back at the start of the season, at the starting line, when the two Aston Martins were fighting not to be the worst car on the grid. The most disappointing thing is that this has happened just when the team has unveiled upgrades that were expected to allow them to look towards the top of the grid. But it is true that the last two races have been unusual, and the team is confident ahead of this weekend’s race.
Aston Martin sinks in Belgium
Saturday’s qualifying was a cold shower for the Silverstone team. The team was debuting updates to complete the package unveiled several weeks ago at the British Grand Prix. And although Fernando Alonso himself acknowledged that it would not be easy to make them work, what could not have been expected was that on Saturday both cars would set the worst times in qualifying
. The rain and the sprint weekend already suggested that Aston Martin would not have time to fine-tune the car, would not have time to see its strengths and weaknesses, and would not be able to obtain the data necessary to set up the best car. As was the case at Silverstone, the conditions were against them.
However, three weeks ago they were able to recover in the race, with a strategy that put Stroll on the podium and Fernando Alonso flying in the final stages of the race. But in Belgium it was a different story. In Fernando Alonso’s case, he decided to go with an AMR25 designed for rain, but when it rained, the drivers didn’t want to race, and when the race started, almost the entire race was dry. Alonso was a turtle, and although this time the team got his pit stop right (he gained seven positions), he lost them again lap after lap due to a lack of pace.
It was a tough blow for Fernando Alonso, who broke his streak of consecutive races in the points, and a tough blow for Aston Martin, which failed miserably again when it was perhaps expected to deliver the most.
Andy Cowell, optimistic
However, Aston Martin CEO Andy Cowell wanted to send a message of optimism after the race in Hungary. There is little time to dwell on the past, and it is already time to think about this weekend, and the team boss is confident that they will finally be able to squeeze the most out of the new updates to get the best performance out of the AMR25.
“The new wing will give us more than it did here.” “We are happy with the new front wing. We will use it in Hungary and it will give us more benefit than it did here.
It’s been a good test, but we hope to add more performance next week.” The truth is that these updates were not on Aston Martin‘s roadmap so soon, they arrived ahead of schedule and perhaps at the least convenient time for the team, with no time to work on them properly, and the result was what it was.
However, the team remains confident and hopeful about the work being done at the factory and believes it can get back on track for points next weekend and demonstrate the team’s progress.
Aston Martin took a significant step backwards in Belgium, but there is still time to scrape some good results out of the rest of the season. With no time to rest, F1 moves on to Hungary before taking its second summer break and starting the final stretch of a season in which there is still hope for Aston Martin, which is aiming to at least lead the midfield.