2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[-wkst-]

People still don't understand how Alonso operates in a race after all these years. He doesn't care about the gap to his team-mate. It makes no difference whether his team-mate is 5 or 15 seconds behind, provided the car in front of him is uncatchable (in this case Sainz). The strategy was to conserve the tyres and push late with the softs. They (AM) got scared of the undercut and forced him in (as Alonso said in an interview after the race, they even talked about it before the race and still decided against their intention. Simply unbelievable). And no, Stroll was not one second quicker. After Alonso started to push for the pitstop he immediately extended to 1.5 after Stroll was in DRS.

Everybody knows that ALO manages all the time he can or there is no need to psh, especially at the beginning of the races. However this time it was managing combined with a very bad race pace. That was not the Fernando Alonso masterplan, he lost sometimes over 2 secs compared to the leaders per lap. I understand the team that this time they were afraid to be undercutted by nearly everybody.

[diffuser]

People still don't understand how Alonso operates in a race after all these years. He doesn't care about the gap to his team-mate. It makes no difference whether his team-mate is 5 or 15 seconds behind, provided the car in front of him is uncatchable (in this case Sainz). The strategy was to conserve the tyres and push late with the softs. They (AM) got scared of the undercut and forced him in (as Alonso said in an interview after the race, they even talked about it before the race and still decided against their intention. Simply unbelievable). And no, Stroll was not one second quicker. After Alonso started to push for the pitstop he immediately extended to 1.5 after Stroll was in DRS.

The strategy was so bad that it was even inferior to Tsunoda's one-stop strategy, which would have never worked. It is just madness how they worked out this race. They even went against Alonso's suggestion to keep going with the medium.

I agree.

[wiktor977]

I suspect Alonso must be very regretful about renewing his contract with AMR so soon.

Yes, it's a shame... only 23 million euros per season, not counting sponsors and advertising. He certainly regrets it. New Honda engine, new wind tunnel.

But it's fair to say that he expects a lot more, that's for sure. Last year, after Barcelona, he said “this will be my last race without a podium”....

Do you think that Alonso care about the money at this point?

[Nikosar]

I suspect Alonso must be very regretful about renewing his contract with AMR so soon.

Yes, it's a shame... only 23 million euros per season, not counting sponsors and advertising. He certainly regrets it. New Honda engine, new wind tunnel.

But it's fair to say that he expects a lot more, that's for sure. Last year, after Barcelona, he said “this will be my last race without a podium”....

Do you think that Alonso care about the money at this point?

Of course not, but he is a winner at every race.

[zoroastar]

I can’t answer you why ALO was quicker on mediums, I can’t answer you either why he was so slow on softs. I can only tell you that noone manages the tyres, driving voluntarily over a sec slower. Tyre Management only makes sense to a certain extent.

it doesnt matter how slow you are if nobody is passing you. chances of him catching the ferrari wasnt in the cards. he was in no obligation to burn his tires up any faster than he needed to, to keep his position. making an assumption based on 7 laps of a 70 lap race is kinda strange for a die hard fan. keep the faith dude

[Sedaxel]

I can’t answer you why ALO was quicker on mediums, I can’t answer you either why he was so slow on softs. I can only tell you that noone manages the tyres, driving voluntarily over a sec slower. Tyre Management only makes sense to a certain extent.

it doesnt matter how slow you are if nobody is passing you. chances of him catching the ferrari wasnt in the cards. he was in no obligation to burn his tires up any faster than he needed to, to keep his position. making an assumption based on 7 laps of a 70 lap race is kinda strange for a die hard fan. keep the faith dude

Agree.

He was trying to make the stint as long as possible. He said that was the main target agreed on the morning briefing. And he was confident about that, since he thought the tyres were still good.

I just can't understand how can a person call himself a fan and have zero trust in the capabilities of the guy who supports. As soon as there's a negative detail, no matter the cause of it, there he throws the "Alonso is in bad form" comment. And the weirdest thing is that we're talking about a driver who's been proving race by race, for 20 years, that is a beast... Statistically, it's really really really unprobable that the reason of slow pace is Alonso. But hey, anyway...

[zoroastar]

I suspect Alonso must be very regretful about renewing his contract with AMR so soon.

Yes, it's a shame... only 23 million euros per season, not counting sponsors and advertising. He certainly regrets it. New Honda engine, new wind tunnel.

But it's fair to say that he expects a lot more, that's for sure. Last year, after Barcelona, he said “this will be my last race without a podium”....

Do you think that Alonso care about the money at this point?

he does in the sense that he wants to be paid as a top driver. i think its more about respect than piling up dollars at this point. however, if he doesnt care, he is welcome to send his excess dough to my venmo account.

[diffuser]

People still don't understand how Alonso operates in a race after all these years. He doesn't care about the gap to his team-mate. It makes no difference whether his team-mate is 5 or 15 seconds behind, provided the car in front of him is uncatchable (in this case Sainz). The strategy was to conserve the tyres and push late with the softs. They (AM) got scared of the undercut and forced him in (as Alonso said in an interview after the race, they even talked about it before the race and still decided against their intention. Simply unbelievable). And no, Stroll was not one second quicker. After Alonso started to push for the pitstop he immediately extended to 1.5 after Stroll was in DRS.

Everybody knows that ALO manages all the time he can or there is no need to psh, especially at the beginning of the races. However this time it was managing combined with a very bad race pace. That was not the Fernando Alonso masterplan, he lost sometimes over 2 secs compared to the leaders per lap. I understand the team that this time they were afraid to be undercutted by nearly everybody.

Why was it a bad race pace ? He was never racing the leaders.

[KimiRai]

Well, ALO was dead slow on the softs, normally the team should have reacted earlier to let STR by.

Yeah. He said he could have made a longer 1st stint, but it seems he was very slow with that tyres.

I can only tell you that noone manages the tyres, driving voluntarily over a sec slower.

20+ years of career and you still don't know how Alonso races (neither the team does, incredibly!)

He always does the exact same thing on most of the races. First part of the stint he takes care of the tyres and he pushes later when he needs to. He created a train of 10 cars because he was saving the soft tyre and there was no point pushing because all of the cars ahead were in a different league as the top teams. It was a race to look behind & that wasn't the real pace obviously. Absolutely no clue why the team decided to pit him so extremely early, it just has no sense whatsoever. Covering a Williams and Haas undercut? Really?

Plus like some others mentioned, the whole weekend planning was a failure since the start by choosing to not have another set of mediums or hards for the race. Starting on softs is very questionable since you weren't going to gain any advantage regardless of any places you make as the cars ahead are way faster. You'll just lose position after a few laps which is what happened

Even if this team gets Newey we can forget about any real success unless they fix the pitwall. Consistently mediocre with no improvement seen.

[diffuser]

Well, ALO was dead slow on the softs, normally the team should have reacted earlier to let STR by.

Yeah. He said he could have made a longer 1st stint, but it seems he was very slow with that tyres.

I can only tell you that noone manages the tyres, driving voluntarily over a sec slower.

20+ years of career and you still don't know how Alonso races (neither the team does!), it's incredible.

He always does the exact same thing on most of the races. First half of the stint he takes care of the tyres and he pushes on the second one. He created a train of 10 cars because he was saving the soft tyre and there was no point pushing because all of the cars ahead were in a different league as the top teams. It was only a race from behind. Remember Monaco? That wasn't the real pace, obviously. I guess the team really thought his tyres were dead which is so dumb

I've never seen such bad strategists from a team. Stop on lap 7 to cover from backmarkers and ruin Alonso's race tyre wise. Watch Alonso's interview, they even talked about it before the race and stopped him against his will

Even if this team gets Newey we can forget about any real success unless they fix the pitwall. Consistently mediocre since 2023 with no improvement seen

Yeah, not sure what they were thinking. I'd like to hear it though.

[krich]

Strategist team needs to get fired. ASAP

Wasting a set of mediums in fp3 just to do hot laps instead of just wait for the time to fit softs for the qualy runs

They knew since Tuesday that Sunday would be a really hot race and medium tyre was the best for the race

And it’s not the first time they fail with this

[diffuser]

Strategist team needs to get fired. ASAP

Wasting a set of mediums in fp3 just to do hot laps instead of just wait for the time to fit softs for the qualy runs

They knew since Tuesday that Sunday would be a really hot race and medium tyre was the best for the race

And it’s not the first time they fail with this

I don't know why they used the mediums, they did 2 x 6 lap runs with them. They used new softs for hot runs in Fp3.

[-wkst-]

Well, ALO was dead slow on the softs, normally the team should have reacted earlier to let STR by.

Yeah. He said he could have made a longer 1st stint, but it seems he was very slow with that tyres.

I can only tell you that noone manages the tyres, driving voluntarily over a sec slower.

Absolutely no clue why the team decided to pit him so extremely early, it just has no sense whatsoever. Covering a Williams and Haas undercut? Really?

Well, that’s exactly the reason. One more lap and 3 guys would have successfully undercutted him. The list would have become longer and longer, lap after lap. Moreover I am pretty sure that STR was moaning behind. And having let’s say 5 cars undercut you will badly influence your race, losing time behind and destroying your tyres. It’s not that easy from a team perspective.

What I completely agree is that the planning with just 1 medium set was wrong. Everyone knew that, bar the team.

[KimiRai]

Well, that’s exactly the reason. One more lap and 3 guys would have successfully undercutted him. The list would have become longer and longer, lap after lap.

See how Stroll didn't lose that much time staying on the softs. Pace wasn't bad, he rejoined just behind. ALO would've been even quicker once he started pushing. Stopping that early compromised the rest of his race having to extend the other stints and as we saw his Hards didn't make it to the end

Moreover I am pretty sure that STR was moaning behind.

Should have qualified ahead.

[-wkst-]

And the team has a crystal ball for race pace? I just want to remind that one race ago HUL finished ahead on merit. It’s not like this car is a race pace machine. Don’t want to hear the comments, when they are stuck behind cars once again.

Everyone knows the special situation about STR. When he is close to ALO, what he is since a couple of races, he will always get preferential treatment or at least gets away ignoring team orders…

The beginning of the end was however the overall tyre strategy. Austrian TV with Wurz was already joking about their strategy before lap 1.