2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[beerjoystick]

Definitely a kick in the stomach for the team. Unlikely they'll out develop the 4 teams ahead either so fighting for the tail end of points might be the realistic goal.

I thought stroll's recovery drive was great though.

[KimiRai]

My simple request is for alonso to end this ordeal and retire in coming races. in netflix series Stroll sr says gonna be world champion, somebody tell old man not in next 5 years.

The season is very long and there could be many surprises left (bad ones too but still), it is too early to give up and surrender. Everything is possible

[PinkFloydPulse]

Holy cow so much negativity here… Give them at least 5-6 races to see if they are up to the job or not and then start with the doom and gloom…

[Jambier]

It’s tough because they haven’t failed at all.

It is more a back to reality, hence with a long season we can hope for a lucky podium but I don’t expect much.

Again, this is not bad for a team still establishing himself, not bad at all but due to last year we had high hopes or dreams let’s say

[Ashwinv16]

From what I can see, Aston is in a very difficult position. Last year they had an idea of what the car's weaknesses were clearly from the beginning, so they could develop those weaknesses (although they didn't). This time they don't seem to be clear about the car's weaknesses (only about the tire wear), in other words, they don't seem to know why the car is slow.

The weakness is actually very clear this time around. They are struggling to rotate the car in high fuel and it got better with lower fuel. It's highly likely set-up confusions with the pushrod rear suspension along with a sacrifice on traction for more high speed. The field is quite close and everyone is trying to understand their car real pace will be known in three four races.

[JordanMugen]

From what I can see, Aston is in a very difficult position. Last year they had an idea of what the car's weaknesses were clearly from the beginning, so they could develop those weaknesses (although they didn't). This time they don't seem to be clear about the car's weaknesses (only about the tire wear), in other words, they don't seem to know why the car is slow.

It's not slow, it's fast!?

They have pushed forward and developed a very strong car, no?

Yes there are other cars that are a little faster, but it could be much worse if Aston had not pushed development as much as they have!

[Waz]

Hi, first post here, long time reader and very grateful for everything I have learned here. Migrating from another board for more racing oriented discussion.

Reading that the race pace was deliberately poor is so disappointing, and confirms feelings I had last year that AM are not managing their races very well, and always seem to choose the "conservative" option and try to save tires.

It was immediately obvious to me that Alonso was going to eek out a longer stint, but it was also obvious quite quickly that the strategy wasn't going to work. (Although they were expecting exactly what they got).

The final stint showed he had pace to run with the Ferrari's, so hopefully they learned something from that.

I remember Ferrari running opposing strategies in testing with each driver in different sessions, and the more aggressive option was 18 seconds faster over the same number of laps as the tire saving option.

Surprised that a team like AM didn't notice that themselves and apply it.

[jofs89]

People are being way too pessimistic after one race. Not to say they're wrong, but the reasons they were slow on high fuel could be a set up issue that can be sorted out. The car clearly has pace in it.

It might just take them a few races to understand it and unluck it. Also, Bahrain is not the most representative track on the calendar. Like other have said, we need to see a clear pattern before we write them off.

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

People are being way too pessimistic after one race. Not to say they're wrong, but the reasons they were slow on high fuel could be a set up issue that can be sorted out. The car clearly has pace in it.

It might just take them a few races to understand it and unluck it. Also, Bahrain is not the most representative track on the calendar. Like other have said, we need to see a clear pattern before we write them off.

They had 3 test day,3 free practice and 1 qualification. Never ever gonna be so much test opportunity to setup the car right. Is definitely to do something with the heavy car,because at last run was "flying" on hards Alonso was fast as McLaren and Ferrari. I also would wait for next weekend at least.

[Otromundo]

There is more work than I thought, doing it well and quickly will be a good test of professionalism as a team.

In motor.es (Spanish press) it has been published that several Mercedes engines had temperature problems. As could be seen during the broadcast, at least through DAZN in Spanish.

In the same press article they include statements from Toto:

«When we started the race on the soft tyre, everything was going more or less according to plan. And then, unfortunately, we had to start cooling the engine more than we expected. "We still can't understand where that came from."

«One of our client teams, Williams, had the same problem. The other two don't. That was unexpected"

"If you reduce the performance of the power unit between 0.3 and 4 seconds, you will have to do lift and coast, so sometimes it was five or six tenths of a second that the car had, and that we couldn't take advantage of"

At least AM has a better cooling system and/or better aerodynamic development than Mercedes. And McLaren too, of course.

We'll see what they can get out of the car in the next few races.

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

People are being way too pessimistic after one race. Not to say they're wrong, but the reasons they were slow on high fuel could be a set up issue that can be sorted out. The car clearly has pace in it.

It might just take them a few races to understand it and unluck it. Also, Bahrain is not the most representative track on the calendar. Like other have said, we need to see a clear pattern before we write them off.

Sometimes I really feel like the F1 is Pirelli tyres handle championship and not car/driver or team championship. Becuse the big difference between qualification and race this what I think.

[101FlyingDutchman]

People are being way too pessimistic after one race. Not to say they're wrong, but the reasons they were slow on high fuel could be a set up issue that can be sorted out. The car clearly has pace in it.

It might just take them a few races to understand it and unluck it. Also, Bahrain is not the most representative track on the calendar. Like other have said, we need to see a clear pattern before we write them off.

Sometimes I really feel like the F1 is Pirelli tyres handle championship and not car/driver or team championship. Becuse the big difference between qualification and race this what I think.

I agree I HATE the fact that everyone sits 3s back from each other because they can’t push as it’ll hurt the tyre. It completely murders a championship when field spread narrows. We need tyres that last way better because this level of tyre protection kills off any fun. You need to have a tyre offset and 0.7s/lap advantage to have any hope of passing quickly

[SSJ4]

Tom McCullough Saying they had the car set up for the race instead of qualy which is logical. But makes it even more confusing considering the one lap pace but also with the amount of deg they had.

Anyways Saudi we will learn more about the car then Japan will pretty much define the pecking order imo. Barring any massive updates.

[NAPI10]

Jeddah Circuit, with its longer straights, high-speed corners and less tire degradation, should help AMR24 to unleash better race performance.

[diffuser]

People are being way too pessimistic after one race. Not to say they're wrong, but the reasons they were slow on high fuel could be a set up issue that can be sorted out. The car clearly has pace in it.

It might just take them a few races to understand it and unluck it. Also, Bahrain is not the most representative track on the calendar. Like other have said, we need to see a clear pattern before we write them off.

Sometimes I really feel like the F1 is Pirelli tyres handle championship and not car/driver or team championship. Becuse the big difference between qualification and race this what I think.

I agree I HATE the fact that everyone sits 3s back from each other because they can’t push as it’ll hurt the tyre. It completely murders a championship when field spread narrows. We need tyres that last way better because this level of tyre protection kills off any fun. You need to have a tyre offset and 0.7s/lap advantage to have any hope of passing quickly

That's more than just tire related. Aero is involved in that, if the cars behind's aero wouldn't be disrupted as much as it is, they could follow closer. Tracks effect that as well, the longer it takes to pit(pit entry to pit exit), the less likely teams will be to pit for fresh tires. If switching decrease your lap time by one second per lap, you can maintain that advantage for 20 laps and it takes 10 seconds for a pit stop. The a team can easily switch tires and get an edge but if the pitstop takes 30 seconds, well you're losing 10 seconds in total race time if the team switches tires...

Making tires last longer will just turn races with 2 pit stops into races with 1.