In Singaporeafter 14 races with a remarkably high average, Aston Martin hit rock bottom. The British team suffered the worst weekend of a season in which they have added you are podiums from the hands of a Fernando Alonso that has made them dream big. The renewed layout of Marina Bay It was not the ideal scenario for AMR23which far from being in the fight for positions of honor and being the replacement in case the Red Bull failed – which ended up happening – ended with zero points the weekend for the first time in 2023 of success.
The Asturian driver managed to gain a position in the first lap to place sixth, behind the little train formed by the Mercedes and Norris. The podium seemed to be there, but Alonso left Hamilton three seconds behind, his main objective in the World Championship, before the Safety Car made an appearance and brought forward the pit stop.
There, Alonso committed one of those few common mistakes, when stepping on the side line of the pit entrance lane, which cost him a five-second penalty. However, he maintained his style and, before the Red Bulls stopped after extending their first stint on the hard tyres, kept the pressure on Pérez from eighth place. But Ocon overtook him with the Alpine, before abandoning due to a mechanical failure. There, with 20 laps to go, Aston Martin wanted to give wings to its driver, stopped him, allowed him to serve the penalty… and they made a mistake.
Was pIt was difficult to change the two right wheels of the car and the Spaniard lost no less than 20 seconds in an operation that does not usually exceed three. This made him drop to 15th placefar from the points, and there he crossed the finish line after the most unfortunate Sunday for the revelation team of this 2023.
“We’ve had a couple of bad grands prix, but we’ve also had some good ones. I think in a 22-race season and, in general in the sport, there are ups and downs, it’s normal. “So we have to learn the lesson from this weekend, take the positives and move on to Japan as soon as possible,” he said. Mike Krackteam leader, after the race.
“We thought we had a good rhythm. I think we knew beforehand that it would be difficult to go with those in front, but everything was working pretty solid. After the safety car we put on the hard tyres, and it cost us a little more, we have to understand why. We got to a point where when the virtual safety car came out We weren’t sure we could do all the remaining laps at a decent level of pace. So we decided change strategy. Then the sequence of events happened, the penalty, the pit stop went wrong… and we came out in a really bad position. And that was it”.
But the Luxembourg leader assured that they are analyzing whether a damage to the suspension fairing caused the loss of performance, as could be seen in some camera images onboard of TV.
“TWe had some damage to the car that we have to understand how much it affected. We had a problem with one of the suspension fairings, an aerodynamic part. We do not know. We saw it in the pit stop and in the images,” Krack noted. “We have to analyze it in detail, obviously, there were several elements. We had to serve the penalty, then we have to see what exactly happened with the front and rear jacks, what happened before, and then we couldn’t get the tires off. And then it also creates panic, you have to react quickly. We have to look in detail at what has happened“.
When asked about Alonso’s mistake when entering the pits, he did not want to go into many details: “We have to review it. Because there are some set-up changes to be made for it, so we have to check if they were made, and if they were also he was reminded to do them. So I’ll be careful about commenting on errors until we’ve looked at that.“.
“As a team, we have to accept if a driver is critical. Obviously, there was not the performance that he expects and to which he is accustomed, and then I think everything is in order. We want them to give their all, and so it is normal for athletes to react this way as well. So there’s no problem”.
The Singapore surprise
Krack accepted that Aston Martin’s performance was not what they expected within the team. Not in vain, both the managers and the Alonso himself had pointed out Singapore as one of the favorable scenarios to try to achieve the long-awaited 33rd victory. But the Luxembourger also pointed out that Red Bull’s drop in performance, which could only be fifth and eighth after the final abandonment of George Russell, added to the surprises of the weekend.
“I think Singapore was a bit of a surprise for me, but also for the whole paddock., because we have seen a completely different order, right? So I think it’s something we have to understand. Obviously, there has been resurfacing of the track, and the layout of the corners is different. So you have to understand all that. But I think there are some smoking heads, and not just in our garage…“he concluded.
The truth is that Aston Martin leaves Singapore 48 points behind Ferrarifalls to fourth place in Builders, and is now 72 away from the runners-up position after the first zero so far this season. In addition, Alonso has also lost third place in the drivers’ championship by 10 points to Hamilton and has Sainz already 28 points behind. But maybe Japan will arrive like May water next weekend (8:00 a.m. CEST).
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