Fernando Alonso was left frustrated by an “anonymous” Italian Grand Prix after finishing ninth in what he described as one of the ‘most difficult races of the year’ for his Aston Martin team.
The two-time World Champion crossed the line just eight-tenths of a second behind Lando Norris, having been unable to overhaul the McLaren driver in the closing stages.
“Obviously, many lessons to take from this race,” the Spaniard said. “We weren’t competitive so that’s the main focus for us, trying to understand what we need to do different on this type of circuit.
“It is frustrating because it was a very demanding race, mentally and physically, to drive the car with very low grip. It was very tricky to drive, one of the most difficult races of the year for me and the worst result [for me this year].
“An anonymous race that no one will remember, but I will do in my head because it has been a tough one. But as I said, hopefully good lessons to take from here from the car, the data that we have from the race and we get better next time.”
Alonso scored three consecutive third-place finishes to open the campaign, with a second-place finish last weekend at Zandvoort bringing his tally to seven podiums this season.
However, the Spaniard’s ninth-place finish at Monza matches his lowest result of the season to date, with Alonso’s strong showing in the Netherlands only briefly stopping the recent slowing of momentum at Aston Martin from its early-season heroics.
Alonso is now calling for improvements to be made to Aston Martin, with the British outfit having dropped behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
“I think the car and the efficiency of the car is maybe not as it should be for this kind of track,” he added. “It seems to have been our weakness and we know that. Now we need to get better and bring some new ideas.
“I think we are executing the maximum from the car. Sometimes unfortunately it’s ninth like today, sometimes its second like last week. But we are not doing any mistakes, with the strategy or the pitstops – not making any big mistakes our competitors made at the beginning of the year so we have a good gap in terms of points.
“It’s getting closer, even Ferrari I think is ahead of us now with this result, so let’s bounce back in Singapore.”
Alonso is cautious about his chances of adding to his 2008 and 2010 victories at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but he remains more hopeful than he was ahead of last weekend.
“It will be better than Monza for sure! But to win a race, we know how tough it is with Red Bull being outstanding every Sunday,” he noted.
“So, we will see we are contenders in Singapore. I’m not sure. Every weekend the order seems to change.
“The last two street circuits, Alpine was very strong with Esteban in Monaco and in Baku it was Ferrari dominating with Leclerc on pole position. So let’s see in Singapore.”
