2023 Aston Martin | Aramco | Cognizant F1 Team

[organic]

What makes car so competitive on this track? Is it hot temperatures or just type of corners ?

They have chosen to run less downforce than everyone else. 9 teams are using the max dwf and Aston are the only ones using medium-high. The straight is long so it's worth a decent chunk of laptime. However it could bite them in the sprint and on Sunday with sliding.

I would also say that Ferrari's struggles with the wind , McLaren's laptime deletions, Lewis and Max not setting final laptimes makes things seem better than they are.

[KimiRai]

What makes car so competitive on this track? Is it hot temperatures or just type of corners ?

They have chosen to run less downforce than everyone else. 9 teams are using the max dwf and Aston are the only ones using medium-high. The straight is long so it's worth a decent chunk of laptime. However it could bite them in the sprint and on Sunday with sliding.

I would also say that Ferrari's struggles with the wind , McLaren's laptime deletions, Lewis and Max not setting final laptimes makes things seem better than they are.

Makes sense, good explanation. I would also add the Alonso effect in Qatar where he seems to do especially well. Starting P4 is just incredible from his side. But you make a good point that we shouldn't be too confident for the race.

4 consecutive Q1 eliminations from Stroll, 1.1s off the pace. What's going on? He wasn't that terrible against Perez and Vettel, did they flatter him? Is Alonso that good? Is it injury aftermaths? Has the car gone in a direction that he doesn't like and only Alonso can cope with? Is the field being so close today makes driver differences more apparent? Is it something else we are missing or don't know? Honestly I find it very difficult to understand.

[F1doc]

Makes sense, good explanation. I would also add the Alonso effect in Qatar where he seems to do especially well. Starting P4 is just incredible from his side. But you make a good point that we shouldn't be too confident for the race.

5 consecutive Q1 eliminations from Stroll, 1.1s off the pace. What's going on?

Talent.

Other teams did underperform to help, but Alonso got the most out the car and just maybe Aston might have made a fair call with their wing levels. The long runs will be telling if this was a wise decision.

[KimiRai]

Talent.

We all know the talent differences are substantial but the underperformance is just another level, I refuse to believe it is as simple as that. Even Piquet Jr did not remain 4 consecutive times in Q1 with a worse car such as the R28, where gaps between the two were often massive but he made it sometimes to Q3. Lance is not even close to being among the worst drivers who've participated in F1. There must be something else.

[organic]

At the beginning of the year, the deficit in quali was between 2 and 5 tenths. In much the same way that Perez falls off as Verstappen repeatedly crushes him, stroll has lost self-belief. It's a mental game that once you start losing, it is difficult to recover from. Graveyard spiral

[alonsofan]

What makes car so competitive on this track? Is it hot temperatures or just type of corners ?

They have chosen to run less downforce than everyone else. 9 teams are using the max dwf and Aston are the only ones using medium-high. The straight is long so it's worth a decent chunk of laptime. However it could bite them in the sprint and on Sunday with sliding.

I would also say that Ferrari's struggles with the wind , McLaren's laptime deletions, Lewis and Max not setting final laptimes makes things seem better than they are.

Makes sense, good explanation. I would also add the Alonso effect in Qatar where he seems to do especially well. Starting P4 is just incredible from his side. But you make a good point that we shouldn't be too confident for the race.

5 consecutive Q1 eliminations from Stroll, 1.1s off the pace. What's going on? He wasn't that terrible against Perez and Vettel, did they flatter him? Is Alonso that good? Is it injury aftermaths? Has the car gone in a direction that he doesn't like and only Alonso can cope with? Is the field being so close today makes driver differences more apparent? Is it something else we are missing or don't know? Honestly I find it very difficult to understand.

Alo can cope with any car. The guy adapts his driving style according to the strengths of the car. Still remember how he drove the 2013/14 Ferrari in the corners

[AR3-GP]

4 consecutive Q1 eliminations from Stroll, 1.1s off the pace. What's going on? He wasn't that terrible against Perez and Vettel, did they flatter him? Is Alonso that good? Is it injury aftermaths? Has the car gone in a direction that he doesn't like and only Alonso can cope with? Is the field being so close today makes driver differences more apparent? Is it something else we are missing or don't know? Honestly I find it very difficult to understand.

1.1s would be an undesirable gap no matter if the field was close or not. If 1 car is being underutilized so much, how can you trust that driver's feedback?

[Mr Alcatraz]

Fred is ruining 'troll worse than he ruined Jacques all those years ago.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[KimiRai]

1.1s would be an undesirable gap no matter if the field was close or not. If 1 car is being underutilized so much, how can you trust that driver's feedback?

You make a good point . Krack or McCullough, one of the two (forgot who it was), have previously said that the driver feedback was similar between Fernando and Lance. So that would mean Lance isn't struggling with the development direction of the car like Perez is... it's baffling. Unless those statements were before the car took a turn for the worse, which is possible.

It could be due to Fernando's driving style. Peter Windsor often talks about how Fernando feels the car and that small "jink" he still does to the steering wheel before corners (remains from his Renault years?) actively "unbalances" the car in a way that helps him drive cars with such issues, also shown when missing pieces of bodywork like in Baku 2018 & Austin 2022.

He's also great in unpredictable grip situations due to his adaptability. He achieved feats such as the P1 in Silverstone 2017 Q2, the epic night stint at Le Mans or the Canada 2022 qualy, or even Zandvoort this year, but on the contrary he sometimes struggles a little bit with finding the absolute tenth on a very rubberised track after many attempts. Others blame that on his age but the same thing happened in qualifying in McLaren 2007 against Lewis. You can also see it on this graph comparing the fastest 100 laps from WEC Toyota drivers. His 10 fastest laps weren't the quickest, but he had considerably the average fastest laptime out of all the drivers. It goes to show why he's so good during Sundays. Anyways I'm getting sidetracked.


In any case for me it's not surprising that the disparity has increased when the car lost its balance and you started to see corrections during onboards, Fernando excels in those conditions. Had Vettel remained instead of Lance, I believe a beating would've happened to him, maybe not to this same extent but not that far . Though I still find it too much of an underperformance coming from Lance... it's possible there's also the mental angle that organic mentions, Fernando might have broken him. I don't know if he can recover from that.

[bluechris]

Talent.

We all know the talent differences are substantial but the underperformance is just another level, I refuse to believe it is as simple as that. Even Piquet Jr did not remain 4 consecutive times in Q1 with a worse car such as the R28, where gaps between the two were often massive but he made it sometimes to Q3. Lance is not even close to being among the worst drivers who've participated in F1. There must be something else.

Just watch Alo laps in qual. He is correcting the understeer or anything with surgical super fast moves of the wheel like a 6th sense and this is solely the reason of this result. I saw the same today from Leclerc even thought Ferrari is undrivable in comparison to AM.
Kudos to Alonso for this in that age.

[Stu]

As Merc converging to RB philosophy ; their 24 car will be completely re-designed to support that philosophy.
Will that help AM with 24 car since they share lot of parts with Merc?

In order to progress ‘seamlessly’ into the forthcoming Honda era, the team need to seriously consider creating their own gearbox & rear suspension.
Who knows. We don't know if they'll change the gearbox or rear suspension. The PU is frozen.

[KimiRai]

As Merc converging to RB philosophy ; their 24 car will be completely re-designed to support that philosophy.
Will that help AM with 24 car since they share lot of parts with Merc?

In order to progress ‘seamlessly’ into the forthcoming Honda era, the team need to seriously consider creating their own gearbox & rear suspension.
Who knows. We don't know if they'll change the gearbox or rear suspension. The PU is frozen.

Lately they have been in the media calling for standardized/simplified gearboxes for 2026, citing cost saving concerns.

[KimiRai]

Not sure why some are focusing so much on Lance's emotional reaction, to be honest its understandable regardless of his background. Throwing a steering wheel is about one of the most common things drivers do, pushing aside a team member is harsh but its not totally unprecedented. Even Fernando destroyed a hotel room wall after he was taken out at the start of Singapore 2017, he made a hole by punching it due to the frustration. But, I get that those images sell clicks.

[Rikhart]

I can perfectly see Lance quitting at the end of this season, he probably already decided it. He will never be champion, which is his stated aim, unless he has an absolutely dominant car and a team mate even worse than he is.

[toraabe]

They have chosen to run less downforce than everyone else. 9 teams are using the max dwf and Aston are the only ones using medium-high. The straight is long so it's worth a decent chunk of laptime. However it could bite them in the sprint and on Sunday with sliding.

I would also say that Ferrari's struggles with the wind , McLaren's laptime deletions, Lewis and Max not setting final laptimes makes things seem better than they are.

Makes sense, good explanation. I would also add the Alonso effect in Qatar where he seems to do especially well. Starting P4 is just incredible from his side. But you make a good point that we shouldn't be too confident for the race.

5 consecutive Q1 eliminations from Stroll, 1.1s off the pace. What's going on? He wasn't that terrible against Perez and Vettel, did they flatter him? Is Alonso that good? Is it injury aftermaths? Has the car gone in a direction that he doesn't like and only Alonso can cope with? Is the field being so close today makes driver differences more apparent? Is it something else we are missing or don't know? Honestly I find it very difficult to understand.

Alo can cope with any car. The guy adapts his driving style according to the strengths of the car. Still remember how he drove the 2013/14 Ferrari in the corners

Exactly. The same as with Verstappen. They instantly knows how to get the most out of the equipment they are being given. I have to say that Alonso has to get a better teammate than Lance.