Disappointed Alonso sees ‘a lot of work’ ahead for Aston

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Fernando Alonso has candidly admitted to being "a little bit disappointed" with Aston Martin's performance in the first half of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

A stark contrast to the team's frontrunning status in the first part of 2023, Aston Martin has found itself on the back foot this year, well behind its former direct rivals.

The team's high point of the season so far has been Alonso’s fifth-place finish in Saudi Arabia, a far cry from the podium finishes that were commonplace in the first half of last year.

And contrary to 12 months ago, Aston’s development programme has failed to bear fruit, leaving the team chasing performance amid a series of inefficient updates implemented on its AMR24 contender.

Last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Alonso relied – like provisional race winner George Russell – on a bold one-stop tyre strategy to claim ninth on the track, a result upgraded to P8 following the Mercedes’ driver’s disqualification.

Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2024 Belgian GP

"A little bit disappointed," the 43-year-old F1 veteran replied when asked to take stock of the first half of his 2024 campaign.

"We cannot hide the fact that we are fighting today with Williams, AlphaTauri [RB] and Alpine, and last year, we were looking to the top four teams.

“Now they are out of reach, and we are just defending from the guys behind.

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"Even at the beginning of the year. In qualifying especially, we were always top five, top six, in the mix," Alonso added.

"So definitely a lot of work to do for us in [the] summer break and the second part of the year. We will not give up, but we need to work."

Like his Aston teammate, Stroll also followed a medium-to-hard one-stop strategy in Belgium. But the approach only landed him in eleventh position at the end of the day.

“Lower deg than expected, so we hung out for the one-stop,” said the Canadian as he justified the strategy.

But Stroll was on the same page as Alonso regarding the necessity for his team to extract more performance from its car.

“We need to find more pace in the car to fight for the upper grid,” he said rather predictably.

“Straight-line speed was an issue for us, getting overtaken, we were just struggling all day. So something to work on.”

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.