Fernando Alonso attributed Aston Martin’s improved competitiveness across the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix weekend to having “understood” its recent problems.
Aston Martin began the season hanging onto the leading quartet, but recent upgrades had failed to deliver the anticipated gain and saw it struggle to maintain speed.
Following two rounds where he was eliminated in Q1 and failed to score points, Alonso cautioned that Aston Martin was regressing towards the midfield pack behind.
However, the Silverstone-based squad capitalised on Ferrari’s dire weekend to have two cars into the points in Montreal as Alonso was sixth and Lance Stroll seventh.
“Yeah, fantastic, I think, race for the team, obviously, scoring with both cars is always the target and sixth and seventh is a good number of points,” Alonso expressed.
“Extremely difficult race with the conditions. Majority of the race, the track was just two meters wide.
“You cannot put a tyre outside of that dry line. So that is very, very stressful.
“And yeah, congratulations to everybody because it was, I think, a difficult race in the cockpit.”
The Spaniard was holding up Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes across the opening stint but lost the spot in the pit stops and didn’t have the pace to challenge those ahead.
Nevertheless, Alonso revealed that Aston Martin’s return to a more competitive standing emanated from the team beginning to acquire a grasp on its recent setbacks.
“We are happier with the car now,” he commented. “We understood a few things and I think we are more competitive.”
But Alonso cited that Aston Martin expected the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s characteristics would suit the AMR24 and predicts Barcelona will be a test of its progress.
The two-time champion has disclosed that the British marque is also planning to accelerate more components as it strives to reduce the growing gap to the top four.
“But at the same time, we had in the calendar Montreal as one of the best tracks for us, for our package,” he cautioned.
“And yeah, question mark what is going to happen in Barcelona.
“But I know the team is working flat out to bring also new parts to the next race. And hopefully we keep this level of competitiveness.”
