Fernando Alonso revealed his frustrations with the media after Aston Martin’s recent struggles in Qualifying for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Spanish driver was knocked out in Q1 after setting a lap time that was only good enough for 17th.
His team-mate Lance Stroll qualified 20th after an energy recovery system failure limited his running in Qualifying.
Aston Martin has failed to score points in the last three races and the team reverted back to an older specification from the Japanese Grand Prix in Brazil in an attempt to fix its issues.
However, Alonso expressed how the media was more of a nuisance rather than any of his troubles with the car.
“The most frustrating part for me is the media, nothing against you,” he told select media including Motorsport Week.
“It’s just the part of the weekend that we try to explain to the fans and to you guys why we are here but we are here and in Qatar we will be here and in Abu Dhabi we will be here.
“So when we have to come through the media staff, it’s like a little bit of a surprise that we need to explain ourselves why we are here.
“Because it’s not that we were in the podium in the last race and now we are out of Q1.
“So we approach the weekends knowing our position, accepting our position.
“Not happy with it, let’s be clear but we cannot be frustrated just being in this position.
“I think the hope for next year and for 2026 is there and the team is just building the momentum with the new people and the new factory and everything.
“So we need to be patient now and we need to accept that it will take a little bit of time.”
Alonso: ‘I don’t expect any miracles’
Aston Martin scored 280 points in 2023 and achieved eight podiums in its best season since the team rebranded back in 2021.
This year, the team still resides in fifth place in the Constructors’ Standings but on only 86 points.
Speaking about if the team expected to struggle this weekend Alonso added: “Yeah, a bit expected because in the last four or five months, I think after the summer break, we’ve been uncompetitive generally.
“So going out of Q1 is not that easy a task at the moment for us, with the improved Williams, Haas, we seem to fall in that position.
“Our fight at the moment is a little bit too much at the back.
“We are racing with a very old spec car from the beginning of the year so I think we are lacking performance from our car.
“And all the others, they did improve, so the combination of the two is the perfect storm in terms of position to be at the back.
“But, you know, let’s see tomorrow, obviously, it has been a difficult weekend and I don’t expect any miracles.”
Stroll’s Qualifying hindered by ERS failure
An ERS failure in FP3 impacted the Stroll’s qualifying session as he could only set one timed lap.
“Yeah, we did what we could,” he said.
“It’s a great effort from the team to get the car ready, but yeah, not much of a session for us, just that one lap at the end.
It’s been tough all weekend, I mean nothing new, It’s been tough for the last couple, few months.
“Yeah, we only had one lap at the end, so it was like, we had like five minutes.
“We got the car ready with like five, I think even less, like four minutes to go.
“So, it was a great effort from everyone and yeah, limited qualifying session.”
READ MORE: Fernando Alonso backs Lance Stroll to ‘change the opinion of many people’
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