Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso have experienced the extremes of racing in two consecutive Grand Prix races. Although they reached the summer break with their best result of the season, with Alonso fifth and Stroll seventh, a week earlier they had endured their worst weekend of the year, with the team’s worst qualifying in its history on Saturday, with both cars in the back of the grid, and a race in which their strategy failed spectacularly. Although Aston Martin’s progress is evident, just as there will be favorable circuits in the remainder of the season, there will be others where they will have to suffer.
The evolution of Aston Martin
The updates that have been incorporated throughout the championship have served as a springboard for the AMR25, which started the year as one of the worst cars of the season and is now looking closely at fifth place in the Constructors‘ World Championship. First it was Monza, then Silverstone and Belgium in quick succession with improvements, although it wasn’t until Hungary that they were really efficient. In between, there were alternating great weekends and more disastrous races. However, the evolution is unquestionable.
Unfavorable circuits for Aston Martin
Aston Martin suffered one of the team’s worst weekends in Belgium. It is true that the team was mainly responsible for this result, and although the circuit did not favor the performance of the AMR25, the result was well below what they should have achieved. Therefore, it is to be expected that, once they have learned how the car behaves with the new updates, they will be able to fight for a place in Q3 and score points on unfavorable weekends, although this will not be an easy task.
A priori, Monza and Mexico look set to be a major stumbling block for Aston Martin, two of the fastest circuits of the season. The Italian track has always boasted of being the fastest of all, and its few corners make it a problem for an AMR25 limited in top speed. Mexico does have some corners that may favor the car, but overall, it is also a circuit where they will have to suffer.
Las Vegas will also be a nightmare. The American circuit is also one of the fastest on the Grand Prix calendar, although it favors teams racing at night, with lower temperatures, which helps the AMR25 suffer less than it will on the two aforementioned tracks.
Setup, key to optimizing results
Aston Martin must arrive at these races with as much knowledge of the car as possible in order to configure the best setup for the car, as this will be key to optimizing results.
The new aerodynamic configuration of the AMR25 makes it faster than in previous races, although still insufficient to close the gap with the fastest teams. But as we have pointed out, the result at Spa was a combination of bad decisions and not knowing how to react to adverse conditions, but the logical thing is that the team should be able to fight for points on those weekends.
We will have to see how the car and the team perform in the face of adversity, but before these races, Zandvoort, the Dutch Grand Prix, an even more favorable circuit than Hungary, where Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin are aiming for the podium, which will not be easy, because the car has improved, but not enough to achieve privileged positions without something exceptional happening.