Fernando Alonso admitted the 2024 season has been more taxing for him as his car’s unpredictable handling have left him lacking confidence.
The two-times world champion finished on the podium eight times last year but a single fifth place remains his best finish in a grand prix so far this season.
“The car is not easy to drive and it’s a little bit unpredictable at times,” Alonso admitted. “So this obviously removes confidence to the driver, when you are not able to push and to trust that the car will do the same in every corner, in every lap.
“This inconsistency is something that is not great when you are behind the wheel and I’m struggling more this year than previously.”
Aston Martin haven’t been able to challenge the top four teams for much of the season and have increasingly found themselves battling the likes of RB and Haas. Alonso said they’ve had to take greater risks in their approach which at times has hurt them more.
“Obviously when margins are so tight and you are in a close battle for one or two points, sometimes you take more risky decisions. Sometimes you gamble on a strategy. Sometimes you risk more than what you should in the start or on a set-up choice that we went for.
“Instead of changing something minimal before qualifying, we change the whole car before qualifying because we know that with the current car in FP3, we will not be able to score more than one or two points, so you risk it more.
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“There are always consequences with things that you do when you are used to fight for higher positions and you find yourself just aiming for one or two points, sometimes you risk it all to have a top five or being out of the points is not a big loss. These kind of things we learn a lot during this season and probably has been our – or, my – personal biggest difficulty.”
Alonso said it will be important for the team to correct the problems with its car in the second half of the season in order to ensure it makes the correct choices with its car design for next year.
“I think our aim, and my personal wish, is to find the direction and to find a comfortable path into the development that we can go into winter period with some more trust of what we do and then having a more normal 2025 campaign,” he said.
“So 2024, as I said, the top four teams are a little bit out of reach, so we just need to concentrate on our own development, our own trust in the car,…
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