Fernando Alonso branded Aston Martin as the team “ninth” in terms of competitiveness at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, forcing a public response from the team.
The Spaniard ended the weekend with one point, having finished 10th in the race at the Circuit of the Americas, six seconds behind Haas’ Oliver Bearman.
Alonso had also begun it in a buoyant position, having qualified sixth for the Sprint Race on Saturday.
However, his race was over right as it began when he was caught up in the multi-car pile-up that resulted in a McLaren double DNF.
Making it into Q3 for Grand Prix qualifying, Alonso stagnated in that position in the end, fending off the challenge of Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
After saying that, having studied them, Aston’s “metrics [proved] we are the eighth-fastest team”, adding he that he didn’t think “that this is a particularly good weekend for the Aston”.
And after the Grand Prix, Alonso stated his belief that, despite finishing in a points position – with team-mate Lance Stroll in 12th – the race proved to show shortcomings in the AMR25.
“We were slow compared to the cars in front of us and we were holding the Racing Bull [Lawson] behind us,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“They were within one second of us the whole race, so that means they had more pace than us. Yep, we struggled a little bit more on the race than any other session on the weekend.
“We seem a little bit faster in qualifying and less competitive in the race. We need to improve that for the last five races.”
Alonso went on to alter his previous stance from the day before, saying that there was only one team that was inferior to Aston in terms of competition.
“Probably we are ninth today,” he said, “because I don’t feel who is the ninth and the 10th team. I think Alpine maybe is the one that is struggling more but after Alpine, I don’t know.
“Haas is clearly in front of us, with Ollie’s very strong race. Sauber for sure in front, Williams in another league.
“There are not many teams behind us at the moment. To be 10th and score one point is a good result but we need to get better for Mexico.”
Aston Martin need to ‘look in detail’ amid Alonso complaints
Alonso’s damning verdict on the Silverstone-based squad’s performance was addressed to some extent by its Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack, who said that a full examination of all data would be needed before determining whether the driver’s assessment was accurate.
“The analysis is something we need to look at in detail,” he said. “Because some people run with Soft tyres, some people run with Hard tyres, some people run with Mediums tyres.
“I think we need to go through these numbers, see who has traffic, who has DRS and all these kinds of things, before you can really say where you are in the pace.
“There are races, there are circuits, where we are performing better, there are circuits where the car has strengths and weaknesses, like every other car.
“There are weekends, like in Budapest, where it is better suited and there are weekends, like in Baku, where it was not.
“I think that is the challenge over the season, to get the maximum out of it and score whenever you can and do as best as you can. The analysis will be done and then we will go over it.”
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