Why Fernando Alonso is “at peace” over Aston Martin not ‘wasting money’ on small F1 car upgrades
Alonso feels until Aston Martin can find huge gains in each upgrade, he agrees with the team’s commitment to not ‘waste money’ on small upgrades that won’t change its place in the F1 pecking order
Motorsport photo Fernando Alonso agrees with Aston Martin’s plan to not deliver small upgrades on a frequent basis until it has solved its ongoing Honda engine and reliability issues, and can deliver big gains to move up the Formula 1 pecking order. Aston Martin delivered no performance upgrades in Miami, contrasting to effectively all its rivals, as it focused its efforts on reliability and curing the engine vibration issues that plagued its Honda-powered car over the start of the new season. Having solved the vibration problem in Miami, Aston’s next target is better integration and synchronisation of its gearbox, as both drivers suffered constant issues with upshifts and downshifts in Miami.
The Silverstone-based squad’s overall aim is to fix all its reliability issues in order to have consistent running to gain data, and then use this to plot its development path. Added to that, Alonso backed Aston’s decision to not bring smaller upgrades until it can make a sizeable difference in performance – as well as establishing what areas actually need to be prioritised given the full potential of the Adrian Newey-penned car is yet to be fully understood. “I'm at peace because I understand the situation,” Alonso said.
“The team explained to me that if we bring one or two tenths every race, it doesn't change our position, we are P20 or P19 and the next car is one second in front. “So, even if we bring two tenths every race, it doesn't change our position and it's a huge stress in the system, in the budget cap and things like that. Until we don't have one second and a half or two second improvement, it's better not to press the button in production because we waste money.
” Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing Alonso confirmed Honda has fixed its engine vibrations with the changes made for Miami, and now the focus for the team switches to its gearbox and gear shifting. “It was more the gearbox the whole weekend than the engine, so I don't know, the electronics, something,” he said after the Miami GP. “It was very weird on the downshifts and the upshifts, so not very well in control, so yeah, that's the fix number one for Canada.