Fernando Alonso is anticipating a “difficult “Miami Grand Prix weekend for Aston Martin as he predicts the circuit characteristics will not suit its 2024 Formula 1 car.
The Spaniard believes that the AMR24’s weaknesses will be exposed at the Miami International Autodrome and it will have to wait for future rounds to be competitive.
The AMR24 is at home in slow-speed corners and except for a technical section under the freewai, the Miami F1 circuit comprises long straights with high-speed turns.
However, Alonso has not written off the weekend as he pinpoints that the Silverstone-based squad has been able to overperform in similar circumstances this season.
“I think we’ve had some hopes in some circuits that didn’t deliver and the opposite feeling: some circuits that we were not expecting much and we had a very good run,” Alonso said.
“So , Miami on paper should not be our best track looking at the 2024 car, and we have to wait for Imola, Monaco, maybe to have a better understanding.
“But there are a couple of ideas to improve the car, especially on Sundays that we want to put in place.
“We have only one free practice again in a Sprint weekend, so we will try to maximise tomorrow morning, but I think I expect a difficult Miami, to be honest.”
Alonso has been exceptional over a single lap with a string of impressive performances, including third in both the Sprint and grand prix qualifying in Shanghai, China.
But Aston Martin hasn’t been able to translate that promise over a race distance and the team often finds itself slipping to the bottom of the points-scoring positions.
This is a near reversal of the car characteristics exhibited by the team’s AMR23 challenger last term, which Alonso puts down to the core traits of the two cars altering.
“I think the DNA of the car has different characteristics to last year and maybe [is] harder on tyres,” Alonso said.
“On the other hand, we have a very good qualifying and very good tyre already and temperature into one-lap performance.
“So, you know, it does help in one occasion, it does hurt in others.
“Miami being very hot, maybe it is bad for degradation and tyre temperature, and also the set-up there is always something that you can test and you can improve, and we’ve been chasing that since Japan, and we have, as I said, more ideas here tomorrow in FP1. Very limited time, but hopefully some good learnings.”
