La Spain it left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth of the team led by Lawrence Stroll. Rather than confirmation, doubts have arrived about the actual goodness of Aston Martin AMR23, who should have felt "at home" at Montmelò.
Aston Martin's main objective now is to claim second place in the constructors' championship and in this the contribution of Lance Stroll – who has found his teammate's pace in Spain – and constant development will also be important. There Mercedes it has already relaunched itself, and in Spain it managed to impose itself on both Aston Martin and Ferrari. The Maranello team did the same thing, with Sainz, even if he was unable to contain the overflowing Mercedes. However, Aston Martin's setback in Barcelona does not seem to be a cause for concern Fernando Alonso which says it is confident of being able to leave the competition behind - thus reconfirming itself as second force - thanks to the next updates.
Red Bull flies, Aston wants to eliminate the competition
Red Bull scored another important victory in Spain, number 7 out of 7 races. Aston Martin wasn't far behind though. In almost all the races he reached the podium with Fernando Alonso. A result that no one would have predicted in 2022. Furthermore, the Spaniard himself could have achieved the long-awaited victory in Monaco without the extra stop. In Barcelona however, it was much tougher. Aston Martin also brought updates but these did not guarantee it to maintain its position over Mercedes and Ferrari. Aston Martin missed an important event, obtaining "only" a sixth and seventh position, and this began to give rise to the first doubts.
According to the team, one of the main problems in Spain was the set-up which was not convincing for the entire weekend, as well as the problems in qualifying, in particular with Alonso. The Spaniard, who had complained about the bad feeling in free practice, damaged the floor during the sessions qualifications, after an excursion on gravel which called him to make a comeback in the race on Sunday. However, the Mercedes and Perez were faster. Sainz started from P2 and managed to close the gap with Stroll and preserve the advantage. Mercedes' double podium allowed the Brackley team to overtake in the standings.
According to Mike Krack, the problem with the AMR23 is that it didn't have the pace to fight with Mercedes for the podium: "We didn't have the pace to fight for the podium, sixth and seventh position is the best we could achieve.”
Updates in Canada and Silverstone
However, Aston Martin still has many updates in the pipeline, also thanks to the hours it can exploit in the wind tunnel. Updates that will arrive as early as the next Grand Prix, which will take place in Canada in two weeks. These updates will be crucial as they will shape a large part of the fight for second, third and fourth positions in the championship. Aston is aiming for third place but doesn't hold back and has the right ambition and resources to reach second.
Compared to more obvious upgrades, such as those from Ferrari and Mercedes, Aston is working on all areas to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the AMR23.
“We will bring other updates to Canada, as well as to Silverstone"- says Fernando Alonso. The fight is still open and "it all depends on who will bring improvements to the cars. Even with a normal time (in qualifying), we would have been on par with Hamilton and maybe we would have had a better chance. But the real race will come in Canada, and there, we will aim to catch them again.”
We'll see how this fight develops.
Source: PlanetF1, Formula1a.one
