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Great race from Stroll. Really poor from Alonso, it's becoming a theme this season now. The new contract is starting to look like a mistake - it would have been wise to wait till the summer break to assess if this is a real decline or just a blip.
Long observation from the beginning of the season: we started the season with a car at the presentation that I personally didn't like, it was an evolution of last year's one which didn't bring much news other than floating bellies for many, even if the real name it's a double bottom. We arrived in Bahrain where the car had eliminated last year's weak points (efficiency, DRS, fast corners, bringing the tires up to temperature) but the strong points were lost (race pace, tire management, slow corners, weak front ). Qualifying went well, let's forget about the race. The performances were practically the same up until Japan where updates were brought in my opinion due to expanding the operational window, taking up the old concepts of rb18 and amr22 with regards to the bellies. In China a totally atypical track, in Miami further problems begin on another city track where the suspensions make the difference. At Imola many had declared that there were big upgrades, some even an amr24-B which was supposed to at least patch up the problems encountered previously, a new start to the season according to others. Well, in reality I don't want to talk about worsening, but we remained where we were before, but among other things we lost knowledge of the car and completely wrong setups. Alonso's mistakes are not due to his faults, he is a driver who always tries to push the car to the maximum and if he makes mistakes several times it means that that setup is not good for him, it reminded me of the beginning of the year when he was at the Alpine A521 where he suffered with the steering servo. Essentially they are trying to limit the problems at the rear by creating an understeer car, but if you know Alonso, you know that he already has an understeer setup and by doing so you create something undrivable. If you see Alonso's onboard in Q1, look at how he has the steering wheel turned completely to the right and the car continues to go towards the curb and therefore off the track (among other things, losing a piece of the surface before even going there ). What do I think are Aston Martin's problems? there is a bad synergy with the rear, which in order to correct it inevitably damages the front and this tends to be accentuated especially in races with full fuel. They are also focusing a lot on efficiency which I must say is also very good, the best DRS on the grid, but also know that the more unloaded a car is, the more it wears out the tyres, so first you need to have a correct balance of the car (especially suspension) as Redbull has it and then look for that efficiency, so essentially an approach like McLaren and Mercedes which favors downforce is better, rather than still chasing efficiency. The wing they brought new with the flap cut off is similar to last year's Alpine A523 where it had several flaps cut off but they didn't lead to anything. I'm not an engineer, I'm an F1 fan and I would like to underline that this is my opinion and therefore I could be wrong in everything, so don't get angry if you don't agree. Finally I also want to say that I am human, so my immediate impressions are victims of result frustrations.
After the race i think Alonso was just testing with other setup and, personally i think AM is lost a bit, but, Alonso said before de weekend "the upgrades give us less than the midia talk" and in the FIA document u can see a lot of "slightly" or tiny modifications. I think the midia overestimate and hyped us about upgrades, and honestly, we cant saw anything significant different on the car. Alonso said they have more pieces em Monaco, Canada and Spain. So, maybe Aston is improving in more slow "pace" but more frequently than others. We need the new wind tunnel and our suspension for a realistic progress.
After the race i think Alonso was just testing with other setup and, personally i think AM is lost a bit, but, Alonso said before de weekend "the upgrades give us less than the midia talk" and in the FIA document u can see a lot of "slightly" or tiny modifications. I think the midia overestimate and hyped us about upgrades, and honestly, we cant saw anything significant different on the car. Alonso said they have more pieces em Monaco, Canada and Spain. So, maybe Aston is improving in more slow "pace" but more frequently than others. We need the new wind tunnel and our suspension for a realistic progress.
I think till we not fast as Mercedes shouldn't blame about the suspension...
If someone bothers you just mute him, no need to clutter the thread.
Canada, Austin and Imola, three upgrade packages that have not worked as hoped. After the knowledge brought from Red Bull was exhausted Fallows has so far not proven to be a great technical leader on his own. It may not be his fault, it may be the incomplete infrastructure or something else, but the responsibility is ultimately his. I haven't lost all faith in him but it's starting to wane so he better prove himself.
Last edited by KimiRai on 19 May 2024, 18:49, edited 1 time in total.
If someone bothers you just mute him, no need to clutter the thread.
Canada, Austin and Imola, three update packages that haven't worked as hoped. After the knowledge brought from Red Bull dried out Fallows has so far not proven to be a great technical lead on his own. It may not be his fault, it may be the incomplete infrastructure or something else, but the responsibility is ultimately his. I haven't lost all faith in him but it's starting to wane so he better prove himself soon.
I think we have to give him a chance till 2026. Any employer or company change will take a while to adopt it and have his trusted people surrounding him to improve his position. So I think give him time for next two year then we can write of him if he still struggles.
After the race i think Alonso was just testing with other setup and, personally i think AM is lost a bit, but, Alonso said before de weekend "the upgrades give us less than the midia talk" and in the FIA document u can see a lot of "slightly" or tiny modifications. I think the midia overestimate and hyped us about upgrades, and honestly, we cant saw anything significant different on the car. Alonso said they have more pieces em Monaco, Canada and Spain. So, maybe Aston is improving in more slow "pace" but more frequently than others. We need the new wind tunnel and our suspension for a realistic progress.
I don't remember who, but someone said that there were big updates in Imola, so it's not the media's fault this time
From data, we still the 5th at least the RB Toro Rosso and the Hass did not surpass us. From ALO interview they run two different set-ups one in Alonso car and the other in Stroll Car, they used the race as test that was the only thing left to do.
Mercedes did a good job, we need to cut that +1,2 sec by half before Monaco.
If someone bothers you just mute him, no need to clutter the thread.
Canada, Austin and Imola, three upgrade packages that have not worked as hoped. After the knowledge brought from Red Bull was exhausted Fallows has so far not proven to be a great technical leader on his own. It may not be his fault, it may be the incomplete infrastructure or something else, but the responsibility is ultimately his. I haven't lost all faith in him but it's starting to wane so he better prove himself.
While I honestly believe he's a very sound aerodynamicist, I don't think he has the chops to lead as a TD. He wasn't put in the role by Red Bull, when to position became open. AM"s problem could very well be a leadership one, they've made some top hires, but have these people been placed in the right positions? Fallows really needs to put things in order.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
If someone bothers you just mute him, no need to clutter the thread.
Canada, Austin and Imola, three upgrade packages that have not worked as hoped. After the knowledge brought from Red Bull was exhausted Fallows has so far not proven to be a great technical leader on his own. It may not be his fault, it may be the incomplete infrastructure or something else, but the responsibility is ultimately his. I haven't lost all faith in him but it's starting to wane so he better prove himself.
While I honestly believe he's a very sound aerodynamicist, I don't think he has the chops to lead as a TD. He wasn't put in the role by Red Bull, when to position became open. AM"s problem could very well be a leadership one, they've made some top hires, but have these people been placed in the right positions? Fallows really needs to put things in order.
You all forget about Eric Blandin, former Mercedes aerodynamic chief who I have a lot of trust in. I don't understand these Aston Martin debacles with all these capable people, that's why im even more disappointed. When Fernando was at Alpine I didn't expect much, I expect Aston Martin to fight for the top and that's what the team really wants. They need to fix this correlation with the gallery, there's nothing else to do
Race to forget from Alonsos perspective. Stroll had a decent pace took mediums pretty long and then recovered using fresh hard tyres. There was no hint of excessive tyre deg with his car.
I feel the upgrades have moved the car away from usual Alonso setup and balance. Hopefully they solve it quickly. Still 5th best team but VCarb & Haas are very close behind.
In FP3, just before Alonso's crash, he was quicker than Stroll. Both were on hards, being Alo 3 tenths quicker, and he was improving his times. I guess it's just that Alo puts the car to its limits, rather than upgrades getting away from his driving style.
with the position we're in in terms of general race pace. way behind the top 4 but clear of the 4 teams behind us. alonso may as well experiment and aston martin should
