Fernando Alonso has often showered immense praise on Aston Martin for a glorious season in 2023. However, that is not to say that the two-time champion is pleased with everything. The 42-year-old recently highlighted some of the team’s weaknesses. Alonso explained how Aston Martin was stuck in a “loop” and needs to work on its weak points to get out of it for 2024.
According to Autosport, Alonso stated that they need to find some “consistency” with the AMR23’s successor. He cited, “Also, if we can improve the straight-line speed – I think that was, in performance numbers, our weak point. Always a little bit too slow on the straights.”
“If we wanted to be as fast as the others, we have to drop too much the rear wing. Then we ended up slow in the corners as well. So, that was probably the loop that we could not go out [of] this season.”, explained Alonso.
Due to the AMR23’s concept, Aston Martin knew that their car was extremely strong on high downforce circuits. However, the car’s major Achilles’ heel was the top speed on the straights. It is for this reason that the Silverstone-based outfit had an outstanding start to the 2023 season and then struggled thereafter.
Alonso claimed five podiums in the first six races and then ended the season by claiming just one top-three finish in his last nine races. The Spaniard struggled mainly in the second half of the campaign because the team adopted a different development path following their Canadian GP upgrade. As a result, they ended up losing key performance.
This was also reportedly due to the flexi-wing regulations and mainly due to competitors like McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari jumping them in the development race. Alonso then also cited that the Aston Martin car has a “narrow window”. The Spaniard then further elaborated on why the team couldn’t improve on this in 2023.
Fernando Alonso dissects Aston Martin’s “narrow window” to get performance insights for 2024
Fernando Alonso reasoned that the AMR23’s “narrow window” was a result of the focus on the 2024 development. However, other factors also limited the Silverstone-based team.
The 42-year-old mentioned, “It’s the same for everybody [with the ground-effect cars proving particularly sensitive]. But it seems that we’re struggling a little bit, and it will be nice if we can always perform at a stable level next year.”
However, Alonso also highlighted some major positives that Aston Martin can be happy with. He cited “tire degradation” and the performance of the car on Sundays has always been “very strong”.
On the strategy side too, the former Ferrari driver is happy with how the team delivered this season. Alonso affirms that they wish to keep this motivation for 2024 and take another step forward on all fronts.
As for the reason for their decline in 2023, it is blurred between the flexi-wing controversy and their Montreal upgrade package. While the team reiterates that their development direction faltered, the FIA did take some action behind the scenes on the reported usage of flexi-wings for all teams.
Reportedly, Aston Martin suffered the most from these actions taken during the Azerbaijan GP. According to Motorsport.com, in the initial races, there were deflections in wing levels on Alonso’s car down the straights. This flexing in a controlled manner at high speeds made the FIA probe into the matter.
Following this, during the Spanish GP, Aston Martin introduced a newer front wing. While Alonso got a podium in Montreal courtesy of the new upgrade package, the Silverstone team’s performance dropped significantly after that.
