(Motorsports news) Last weekend in Hungary, Fernando Alonso came in first place, one spot ahead of teammate Lance Stroll. The Spaniard raced as high as eighth on the opening lap but fell short behind George Russell and Sergio Perez, who were moving up the field following subpar qualifying runs.
Fernando Alonso, who recorded six podium results in the first eight races of 2023, has acknowledged that Aston has fallen in the standings now that Red Bull is lagging behind a pack led by McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari. When asked if the Hungarian outcome was the best he could have obtained, he responded, “Yeah, I think so.”
“I believe we lacked the speed to threaten anyone in front, and we lacked any threats from behind. So today’s maximum is three points, ninth and tenth. “I believe that our last two races have shown some signs of difficulty. In Silverstone, I believe the safety car assisted us in a way that allowed us to finish seventh, which was slightly better than our speed.
“Ninth is probably our speed today and at Silverstone. So, in the race and throughout qualifying, McLaren finished roughly behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. Alonso acknowledged that he was taken aback by how stable the pecking order was across two quite different tracks.
“Yeah, a little bit,” Alonso answered. “I believe that in Silverstone we did anticipate some difficulty, but in Budapest we believed to be a little bit stronger. The opposite was true. So we attempt to analyze and recover well for Spa the following week. “We need to observe a lot of things. It’s up to us to better understand how the vehicle is performing right now compared to the start of the season, how many upgrades we made in comparison to our key rivals, and how to comprehend the new tyres.
We only need to do better because they are the same for everyone. Alonso responded that it wasn’t apparent what the actual issue was when asked if Aston was just falling short in the development race. “We need to observe a lot of things. It’s hard to say,” he remarked. “I mean, every race is something that we would love to comprehend, and we have a lot of questions, but we never really know what the specific cause is. We were all taken aback by Hulkenberg and the Haas’ qualifying position of fourth in Austria. Williams was really quick at Silverstone, which shocked us all. We were all shocked by how quickly the Alfa Romeo drove here.
However, in a race, everything usually balances out, and the big teams come out on top. And yes, we are just behind those elite teams. Therefore, we must return to that group’s front. “We always work to make things accessible to everyone. Therefore, not everyone will just complete the work and postpone it until next year. We’ll all try to pack something. “Some of that stuff works better than expected sometimes, some of that stuff works worse than expected, and hopefully the next step on our side is a good one.”
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