Aston Martin face same difficulties with upgrades as last year

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso hopes his team are finally getting on top of the developmental weaknesses it encountered last season.

The team was unable to sustain the strong start it enjoyed to the 2023 season, when Alonso took six podium finishes from the first eight races. They lost ground to their rivals from then on and Alonso scored just one top three finish in the final nine rounds.

After the first nine rounds of 2024, Aston martin lie fifth in the constructors’ championship with over 100 points less than this stage last season. They enjoyed their best result of the season so far in the last round in Canada, but Alonso says that doesn’t guarantee they will be as competitive over the coming rounds.

“Canada is a very unique track with only long straights and heavy braking, very short corners as well,” he explained.

“I think Canada was good for us, but I think we have to wait two or three different circuits to really have an outcome of our understanding of the packages. So let’s wait and see. I hope so.”

As Aston Martin have struggled to keep up in the development race compared to their rivals ahead, Alonso says the team have a better understanding of how sensitive the current generation of ground effect cars are to changing or modifying parts.

“These cars, when you put more and more downforce [on], they become a little bit more critical in some situations,” Alonso said.

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“You need to get used to that or just mitigate a little bit with set-up changes or other things, better understanding of the upgrades that maybe you bring to one race and they need a little bit more time to really adapt [to] that new aero performance to a different circuit or different set-ups.”

The variation between race weekends has also made it hard for Aston Martin to fully understand the changes to their car, said Alonso. “You hit maybe a weekend with a sprint format, so then you have only FP1, there is no time, so you are always a little bit running behind the upgrades.

“When you start understanding and maximising that package, another new package is coming. So you reset things. That’s one of the difficulties that we faced last year already with the ‘23 car, we started to face this year on the ‘24 [car].

“But I think, as I said after Imola, there is a very clear picture, black-and-white. So finally, I think we have a good plan ahead.”

Asked if he feels Aston Martin could be…