Fernando Alonso says the help he gets from his team mate is vital to ensure Aston Martin get the most out of their car.
Lance Stroll lagged far behind Alonso in the championship last year, scoring 74 points to his team mate’s 206. The opening races of this season indicated the gap in performance between the two has changed little this year.
However Alonso, who recently extended his contract to drive for the team owned by Stroll’s father, said he relies heavily on Stroll’s input on car set-up.
“Lance and myself, we are trying to help the team as much as we can,” he said. “I think we have two different driving styles in some conditions, we have two different feelings with the car.
“Lance is a lot more sensitive to things than what I am, which is very important for the team. I think the analysis that Lance can reach and can feed back to the team is crucial to us and to improve the car.
“I’m a little bit [insensitive] to things sometimes and this is not a good thing. I think we are both trying to help Aston as much as we can and I think the direction that we develop the car and we finalise normally the set-ups on a weekend is exactly the same. So we arrive at the same conclusions maybe in a different way and I think those two different styles are just a good thing for Aston.”
Alonso is F1’s most experienced driver of all time. He said he relies on his ability to cope with problems in his car but doesn’t always find the best way to solve them through set-up changes.
“Sometimes I drive the car around the problems that we have and that’s sometimes a good thing because I can drive any car, any moment and extract 90% of it.
“But to reach 100% of the potential of the car, sometimes I’m not able to do without sometimes the help from my team mate on special details on the set-up or balance problems here and there.
“So I think we benefit from each other in many different ways and it’s a good thing at the moment.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Chinese Grand Prix
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…