‘It’s what we deserved’ – Alonso says Aston Martin need to learn from tough Monza weekend after salvaging P9 finish
Fernando Alonso has called on Aston Martin to “look at the reasons” why they struggled for pace relative to their direct rivals so far this season during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
With Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams and McLaren all showing superior pace at Monza, Alonso did just enough to reach the pole position shoot-out in qualifying and secure 10th on the grid, which he turned into ninth on race day.
After stepping out of the car, Alonso said: “I think this is what we deserved today. We were only good for ninth and we need to get better next time. We didn’t have the pace, since Lap 1 I felt a little bit slow.
“We need to look at the reasons why this track is a little bit more difficult for us and focus in Singapore obviously to get a better weekend.”
Asked what he and the team can still take away from Monza, he added: “We learn a lot. Obviously every lap we do we see things on the car that are maybe not in the window we want to be and we try to learn from this.”
Meanwhile, team mate Lance Stroll came home 16th as the final driver on the lead lap, having started at the back of the grid amid a particularly disrupted weekend.
Stroll missed FP1 to give Aston Martin’s reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich, an outing in his AMR23, before coming to a halt on his out-lap at the start of FP2 due to technical troubles.
“Tricky, just no pace,” said the Canadian of his race. “We were just slow all weekend, so some stuff to think about for Singapore. I wasn’t expecting anything [here], I just think it was a hard weekend.”
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Aston Martin’s minor points finish sees them slip to fourth in the constructors’ standings, with Ferrari jumping ahead thanks to Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc netting P3 and P4 respectively on the team’s home soil.
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