Fernando Alonso has said that he found it “strange” that some people were surprised with the pecking order following the 2024 Formula 1 season-opener in Bahrain.
Aston Martin began the previous campaign as Red Bull’s most consistent challenger, but the team’s competitiveness regressed as the development race commenced.
The British marque slipped to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship and started this season in a similar standing behind Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren.
Alonso had heightened expectations when he qualified a stellar sixth, but the Spaniard was unable to hold that position and dropped to a distant ninth place in the race.
Speaking ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Alonso clarifies that Aston Martin’s AMR24 is an improvement on its predecessor but not enough to leapfrog its rivals.
“Probably I think it was a bit of a surprise how fast we were on Friday, and we were really surprised how far we were on Saturday,” Alonso reflected on the Bahrain GP.
“So both ways into Bahrain race were a little bit one in the positive way, one in the negative. So, we need to understand what we can do better, especially for Sundays.
“We were fifth fastest in Abu Dhabi. We remain fifth fastest in Bahrain. So, more or less we make the same progress as everyone in the winter, which maybe was as expected.
“Now it’s up to us to really bring that pace to the car in a better way than what we did last year. We learned a lot of things. Hopefully we can apply those learnings into this year.”
Despite the high-speed Jeddah street circuit representing a different challenge to Bahrain, Alonso is braced for Aston Martin to lag behind its competitors at the front.
“I think the cars are identical to Bahrain,” he assessed.
“I know that there is the need to talk about the performance, and the need to talk about something that can change the domination from Red Bull. But this is Formula 1, this is not a simple sport. This is much more complicated. I don’t see any difference from Bahrain to here.
“Hopefully, we see some, we see a better result from Aston Martin, we were very fast last year. So, hopefully set-up wise adaptation to the track can be better than Bahrain.
“But I think we should be the fifth fastest team, I don’t expect any miracle.”
Asked again whether he anticipated a switch in the order this week, Alonso reiterated: “No, I don’t think so. I think also last year, it was very similar, Bahrain to Jeddah.
“So, I think it’s going to be similar, again, Red Bull maybe McLaren is quite OK in the high-speed corners. So, McLaren maybe is a little bit better here than Bahrain. But the rest is the same.
“We’ve been saying all winter that Red Bull and Ferrari, they were a little bit better than everyone else.
“In Bahrain, Red Bull was first and second on Ferrari third. And it seems a surprise for most of the people. I was surprised about that. Because after a few months saying that Red Bull and Ferrari, they were a step ahead, they were both in the podium, and people were surprised. That was strange.”
Having slipped behind the McLarens and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to his eventual finishing position, Aston Martin elected to extend Alonso’s second stint in Bahrain.
But Alonso has denied that being gentle on the rubber is a strength of Aston Martin’s 2024 car, citing that the team had been holding out for a Safety Car intervention.
“Actually, we were quite bad on tyres, the degradation seems a little bit worse than the others,” he contended.
“But we stretched the stints as much as we could, just to wait for an opportunity, a Safety Car or something, because our race was with no one in front, no one behind.
“So we just tried to be a little bit kamikaze with the strategy. It didn’t work, it didn’t change anything on our final result. So, we just kept stretching the stints.
“But here, for example, it’s going to be different matter, the degradation is very low. So, there is a clear optimal lap to stop in the stints, and we will try to be stricter on that.”
Red Bull was the sole team to run two stints on the Soft compound compared to the rest who went conservative on the abrasive Bahrain track surface with the Hard.
But while Jeddah has been renowned for being less demanding on tyre wear, Alonso notes that the teams with the greatest downforce will still retain an advantage.
“I think there will be lower degradation, because last year I think it was one of the lowest degradation circuits of the calendar, Jeddah, only one stop in the previous editions here,” he said.
“So, there will be less degradation for everybody, but the better car you have, the more downforce you have, less degradation you get, because you slide less the tyres.
“So, this is what we need to do, improve the car, get more grip, and the tyres will suffer less.”
