Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin were on the back foot during the 2024 Miami GP. After qualifying only 15th for the Grand Prix, the Spaniard gained positions throughout the race to finish in the points in P9. The decision to start on hard compound tires paid off for the 42-year-old as there was low degradation during the race.
Aston Martin capitalized well on the safety car to make a cheap pitstop for medium compound tires. However, Alonso has higher ambitions. So, despite a points finish in Miami, he’s shouldering the blame for the overall underwhelming output.
“We have to improve, I haven’t had a great weekend on my part. In the two qualifyings, I haven’t managed to get a good lap, and that has compromised the starts and the race.”, Alonso said.
“And then, as a team we haven’t achieved the set-up, it was not in that window in which it operates in perfect conditions. If we had had one more training [practice] we would have made some changes and we would have more ideas,” he said as quoted by SoyMotor.
Aston Martin salvaged the Miami weekend with their clever strategy. However, in Alonso‘s assessment, the car is lacking in a lot of areas, especially raw speed. The two-time champion battled against a Mercedes and an Alpine during different stints in the race, but had difficulties matching the pace of both cars.
This confusing scenario needs attention according to the #14 driver, as Aston Martin is nowhere close to fighting for podiums. Additionally, this shoddy output was consistent throughout the weekend in all sessions, especially qualifying. This is exactly what Alonso regretted about his Miami performance.
Fernando Alonso highlights his poor qualifying output while being critical
For the first time in 2024, Fernando Alonso failed to make it to Q3. This scenario highlighted the team’s woes in Miami. The opening lap Sprint race-ruining collision with his teammate put him at risk for the upcoming Grand Prix qualifying.
However, despite sustaining no serious damage, the team opted for a setup change. This change resulted in the two-time champion doing worse than the sprint qualifying session.
As quoted by Formula 1.com, Alonso revealed the changes and highlighted the difficulties saying, “We seem to [be] struggling a lot today compared to yesterday.”
He added, “I could not improve that much. We made some set-up changes also from the session this morning to now – looking at the times, I would say that didn’t work as expected. But, yeah, this is a Sprint weekend and it’s tough.”
The limited practice time resulted in the poor choice in setup. However, the two points were a positive note on a holistically disappointing weekend. Now, the focus shifts to Imola. Aston would want to bring some upgrade package in or after Imola during this European stretch of races.
If the Silverstone outfit can figure out their lack of pace relative to Ferrari and McLaren, who are prospering at the top, Alonso would be a lot happier.
