Fernando Alonso has labelled the choice to televise his radio remark concerning Aston Martin’s Formula 1 car at the Hungarian Grand Prix as “low-level broadcasting”.
Aston Martin has introduced a seismic upgrade package this weekend as it bids to correct the missteps the team has made on development over the last 12 months.
However, Alonso, who was running the new parts, ended up over four-tenths behind team-mate Lance Stroll on the previous-spec AMR24 in the opening practice hour.
When asked about his car’s balance as Aston Martin strived to gain a comparison between the two packages, Alonso responded to his race engineer: “Ha, good luck”.
But when that incident was put to him, Alonso, who slammed FOM over using radio lines “out of context” in Japan last season, has denied he was venting frustration.
“Yeah. I mean, yesterday, we were playing a little bit with a few set-up options,” he explained.
“It’s not that I was unhappy or Lance was unhappy. I think they put some radio comments, as usual, very low-level broadcasting.”
Aston Martin looked to be on the back foot again as pace deserted its cars through the remaining practice sessions, but Alonso and Stroll qualified inside the top 10.
Alonso, who headed an Aston Martin fourth-row lockout, has explained that the Silverstone-based squad’s turnaround derived from optimising the updates overnight.
“This was a circuit that could adapt to our package, so I think thanks to the new parts, we are a little bit more competitive,” he said. “We found pace overnight.
“Also, we did a lot of changes to accommodate the new package, and I think the result is good.
“Obviously, points are given on Sunday, not on Saturday, so we need to finish the job tomorrow.”
The Spaniard also suspects that the cooler track conditions prevalent helped Aston Martin and could leave it vulnerable in the race should the temperature rise again.
Asked whether the vast drop in track temperature helped Aston Martin to acquire a stronger result, Alonso replied: “I think so.
“When there are these mix conditions of some drops of rain, but still on slicks, I think that’s a condition that normally we like and our car likes because we put a lot of temperature on the tyre.
“And it’s the opposite when the weather is too hot. So let’s see tomorrow, it’s gonna be a bigger challenge for us.”
Aston Martin revealed that the team’s latest developments are targeted at reversing a trend which had seen the AMR24 become “difficult to drive” since past updates.
Alonso has acknowledged that he could sense an improvement in both general competitiveness and the handling, which he also thinks will help with tyre degradation.
“I think the lap time is showing that we are getting closer to the top teams and we are not having the struggles that we had in Barcelona and Austria for example, fighting in Q1,” he admitted.
“But also as a feeling behind the cockpit, you feel like any more grip more downforce in the corners and this has more benefits as well with the tyre degradation this kind of thing.”
However, the two-time F1 champion has cautioned that it could take Aston Martin up to three events to obtain a complete read on how the upgrades are performing.
“I think more laps we do the more we learn about the package,” he said. “Yesterday was very interesting, today as well. And I think tomorrow in the race, we will benefit a lot.
“I think the first two or three races when you introduce a new package are crucial to find the direction, so I think the team did a very good job last night from performance today.”
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