Alonso: Aston endured ‘painful’ period to recapture F1 form

Fernando Alonso asserts Aston Martin had to experience its recent “painful” period to recapture the form that returned him to the podium in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

After Aston Martin locked out the second row in qualifying, Alonso pipped Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to third place at Interlagos by 0.053s, scoring his eighth podium of 2023.

The result marked a much-needed upturn for the Silverstone squad, who had endured a torrid brace of rounds earlier in the Americas’ triple header. Having slumped to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, Aston Martin attempted to arrest its plight with the addition of upgrades in the United States.

However, the British marque plunged to a shock double Q1 elimination in Austin before both cars failed to threaten the points in Mexico City prior to retiring from the race.

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But Alonso believes the experiments the team conducted, which included starting from the pitlane in the US GP with both cars to decipher which parts were working, proved essential to its strong Brazil showing.

“It is very nice [the podium]. I think we’ve been struggling for a few months,” Alonso admitted. “But the last two races were probably quite painful.

“We had to experiment a little bit on a few things on the car to really understand the direction that we were going and we have to go for next year’s car as well.

“So those races were painful, especially Mexico. I think we were very slow as a team, as a performance and yeah, I think it was nice to see everyone in the team very focused, the determination in the team was so nice from the outside to see and to go deep in the analysis and get back stronger here in Interlagos. So that was nice to witness from the outside, in a way, and to see everyone united into the same direction.”

Alonso concedes that he was starting to become “concerned” by Aston Martin’s regression but the Brazil podium has revitalised him ahead of the final two rounds.

“I was a little bit concerned, no doubt, for the last few races and maybe the final part of the championship and now, yeah, I cannot wait to go to Vegas,” he added. “So it’s a very different energy when you have a performing car.”

Alonso’s record ninth rostrum appearance in Brazil was only his second podium since June, having opened the season with six top-three finishes in the first eight races.

While the two-time F1 champion is unsure whether Aston Martin can replicate those exploits in the remaining two races, he is optimistic it won’t suffer a repeat of Mexico.

Asked if he thinks Aston Martin can continue its positive momentum from Brazil, Alonso replied: “I think so. At least closer to these [performances] than Mexico, that’s for sure.

“I think there are a couple of things that have been understood inside the team and the direction to go and we had some hopes for this race and they proved to be right. And now, why not to be competitive in the last two. I don’t know if [it would be] the level of the podium.

“Today, we had a good race. We had Charles [Leclerc], obviously, going off on the formation lap with the problem. We had the Mercedes underperforming, Checo [Perez] starting at the back, so there were a couple of factors that helped us to be on the podium. But, you know, hopefully in the mix, that will be a happy place for us.”