Fernando Alonso explained that Aston Martin’s brake balance issues in the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix were akin to engaging “the handbrake”.
Alonso had a torrid Sunday afternoon at Interlagos plagued by not only painful bouncing but brake balance issues.
Those issues were triggered by a rebuild on both Aston Martin‘s after crashes in qualifying, particularly changing the floor specs between those incidents in the race.
Brake issues pitted Lance Stroll into a formation lap spin and Alonso battled them all race in Brazil.
“After [qualifying] we had to go back to a less performing package on the car, so the race was a little bit slower pace from our side,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“And then we had a brake issue, I think Lance had the brake problem in the formation lap, and I had the brake issue after all the restarts where all the brake balance goes completely rearwards, it’s like braking with a handbrake, so it was all in all a nightmare out there, but we need to get better for the next round.”
Brake issues weren’t the only thing plaguing Aston Martin in Brazil with the team undergoing experiments with its Japanese GP spec floor before Alonso and Stroll crashed out of qualifying.
Alonso takes ‘positives’ from Aston Martin’s troubles
Despite its fifth-place position in the Constructors’ standings, Aston Martin is struggling massively on track to find performance.
A best-of-both-worlds floor introduced at the United States GP didn’t deliver results, prompting Aston Martin to continue changing between a low-speed circuit floor spec and a high-speed circuit floor spec.
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough told Autosport: “We’ve had two main floor philosophies this year, and we’ve iterated and developed both of them as they sort of suit different tracks and, as you notice, we’ve sort of gone between the two of them.
“The floor that we brought to Austin was trying to sort of do best of both worlds really, and was a bit of an experimental floor understanding for next year.”
Alonso acknowledged the experiments Aston Martin has been undertaking in a positive light.
He’s hopeful that these experiments bare fruit in 2025.
“Every weekend we take positives and lessons, so we need to apply those lessons,” Alonso said.
“I think this weekend also we tried different packages, I think it’s again very clear which ones are performing and which ones not, so hopefully all this information is helping the team for 2025.”
McCullough is positive that the team is heading in the right direction for 2025, saying “I think, looking at the way the AMR25 developments are going at the moment, which is in effect an evolution of the philosophies that we’ve adopted, we’re making quite good strides in the wind tunnel.”
READ MORE – Fernando Alonso: F1 Brazil GP pain barrier doesn’t compare to Valencia crisis
