Fernando Alonso is feeling the heat as Aston Martin’s 2024 season takes a nosedive. Here’s what’s happening:
- Alonso is now looking over his shoulder at rivals instead of chasing the leaders.
- 2023 was a great year with many podium finishes, but 2024 has been rough.
- The top four teams—Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari—are miles ahead.
- No significant upgrades are expected this year, as the focus shifts to 2025.
- The team has a lot of work to do during the summer break to improve.
Fernando Alonso is not hiding his disappointment. After constantly battling for podiums in 2023, the 2024 season has thrown a wrench in his plans. This year, the Aston Martin team finds itself fighting just to stay ahead of the midfield pack.
Alonso and his teammate Lance Stroll have struggled to make it to the podium. Their best finish so far is a fifth place in Saudi Arabia. Alonso spoke about this challenge after finishing ninth at the Belgian Grand Prix, which highlighted the gap between Aston Martin and the top four teams—Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari.
“I’m a little bit disappointed,” Alonso admitted. “We cannot hide the fact that we are fighting today with Williams, AlphaTauri, and Alpine while, last year, we were looking maybe to the top four teams.”
The first half of 2024 has been tough, and Alonso knows there’s a lot of work to be done. “Even at the beginning of the year – in qualifying, especially – we were always top five, top six in the mix. So there’s definitely a lot of work to do for us in the summer break and the second part of the year,” he said.
Unfortunately, Alonso doesn’t expect any big changes this year. Asked about new parts, he said, “I don’t think so. I don’t think there is anything planned. So it’s more, for us, understanding the weaknesses of the car, the parts that we need to improve, but I think all the work will be done for 2025.”
Team boss Mike Krack, however, mentioned some updates are still in the pipeline for later this season. “There are more updates planned on the AMR24 in the second half of the season before everything moves to our 2025 car,” he said. The focus, though, is already shifting towards next year.
While the drivers have voiced their frustrations about the car’s performance, Krack stands by them. “Both Lance and Fernando have driven excellently this season in a car that has been difficult to drive. We have two world-class drivers; we need to give them a better car— and we will because we have a world-class team.” He added that the team needs to protect them as they are “always exposed” to media scrutiny after races.
The 2024 season has clearly been a challenging one for Aston Martin. Alonso and the team now face a critical period to understand their car’s flaws and hopefully come back stronger in 2025.
Aston Martin has a lot of ground to cover if they want to be competitive again next year.
Source: Planetf1
