Fernando Alonso admitted that Aston Martin’s torrid Miami Grand Prix outing provided the most glaring indication of how much the team has regressed in Formula 1.
Aston Martin’s bruising start to 2025 reached a nadir last weekend as a double Q1 exit preceded Alonso and Lance Stroll coming home as the last classified finishers.
Alonso going a lap down marked a harrowing contrast to his maiden trip to the circuit with the side in 2023, when he completed the top three behind the Red Bull duo.
That came during a run that included six podiums in eight races, but Aston Martin’s alarming decline since has culminated in Alonso remaining scoreless this season.
Alonso believes Aston Martin’s performance was even worse than the result suggested, as he’s certain he’s now operating on a stronger level than when he took third.
“It says that we have some difficulties ahead, for sure, and some pace to find,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“We were two years ago fighting for podium here, so I was one of the quickest, I had a pink last sector (the fastest time in that sector).
“We were reviewing yesterday some of that thing, and we’re still the same, or a higher level, because as I said, a performance like this morning [in the Sprint race] and yesterday qualifying probably are a little bit higher than 2023, that I’m still adapting to the car and to the team back then.
“And we are on the other side of the field, so there is something that we need to understand and work harder, but we try to be united and do it all together.”
Alonso, though, dismissed that the British marque’s disastrous showing at the Miami International Autodrome induced a more painful experience than previous races.
“No, I think the weekends have been very similar to be honest,” he reasoned.
“We’ve been always with some challenges, but qualifying normally gets a bit better than expected, so we started a little bit higher than what we should be.
“Then we take some DRS trains and we follow those cars, some contacts, some mistakes and we keep always finishing in a reasonable position, P11 in Japan and things like that.
“I think we’ve been, as I said yesterday, using three sets of tyres in Q1, all these kind of things that shows that we are in some difficulty.
“We are not giving up, Imola is next, and we know that we need to get better.”
Alonso urges Aston to maximise opportunities
Alonso rued Aston Martin not listening to his desire to pit as the track dried during the weekend’s earlier Sprint, costing what he suspected was a possible third place.
The Spaniard has stressed the Silverstone-based squad must capitalise on such opportunities to earn results that it can’t achieve on merit with the car’s current pace.
Asked whether points were attainable on weekends where Aston Martin nails the set-up, Alonso replied: “No, I don’t think so. Japan, P11; Jeddah was nearly perfect.
“Yesterday, as I said, I think we have three or four opportunities in the year where chaos is happening and you have the possibility to score points.
“There were three already this year, one in Australia, I had the mistake and I went on the gravel and off.
“It happened in China with three or four cars disqualifying, and I had the brakes on fire in lap one.
“Yesterday, the track was for dry tyres and we kept with the Inters for too long.
“We missed three opportunities to score points in my case, and I think it’s going to be one or two more in the season. Let’s hope not to miss those ones.”
Alonso unsure on improvements to AMR25
Alonso remained evasive when quizzed on whether Aston Martin has developments coming that could elevate the team into a more competitive position this season.
“I’m trying to do my best behind the wheel, but this is a good question for our managers,” the two-time F1 champion remarked.
“They know what is in the pipeline, they work really hard, we support them.
“But we cannot talk about the technicality of the car and the upgrades because we are not in the loop every week.”
READ MORE – How Aston Martin is aiming to avoid repeating F1 2024 development ‘chaos’
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