Alonso by no means doubted himself amid Aston Martin struggles

Fernando Alonso says his surprising Q3 efficiency within the Qatar Grand Prix exhibits why he was proper by no means to doubt himself amid Aston Martin’s latest struggles.

The Spaniard, who’s Formulation 1’s oldest driver, has endured a difficult run of races off the again of his squad’s backward step with a brand new flooring that arrived at the US Grand Prix.

Its difficulties have left it because the eighth or ninth quickest crew at instances, with considerations it might even slip behind the Sauber squad that has lately delivered a step ahead with a brand new flooring.

However after a stronger-than-expected efficiency for Aston Martin in Qatar in comparison with latest outings, Alonso says that the result’s proof that latest difficulties have been extra concerning the automobile than the driving.

“Clearly you have to really feel aggressive occasionally, and I haven’t got doubts about myself,” he stated.

“I am in all probability overconfident in my skills [rather] than needing a end result. However, yeah, it is good to have end result, and I suppose for the crew as properly, that they’ll nonetheless belief after we are aggressive.

“The automobile is responding properly, when we’re not aggressive and combating for Q1 it isn’t that I grew to become sluggish from day to nighttime. It is that the automobile is struggling, actually. So our feedback need to be trusted.”

Alonso stated there was no apparent rationalization as to why Aston Martin had unleashed extra tempo in qualifying at Qatar, however suspects it could possibly be one thing to do with the AMR24 being higher suited to the smooth tyres.

“It was surprising, completely surprising,” he stated. “We have been struggling for the final 4 or 5 months. Even [getting] out of Q1 is a problem now.

“And this weekend we appear a bit bit extra aggressive, however particularly now in tonight’s qualifying, I feel we did some set-up adjustments for the reason that dash race, and I feel the automobile was higher now. Additionally, the purple tyre did assist the general grip of the automobile.

“[In sprint qualifying], we weren’t clearly, we had been eradicated, and we solely tried the medium in SQ1, SQ2. So I feel in quali, with the purple tyre, you already know, straight from Q1 we had been aggressive.”

Aston Martin has been attempting to unravel why it has not made progress with its automobile this season and has been experimenting with flooring philosophies in a bid to assist its understanding.

The Budapest-concept flooring it’s utilizing in Qatar is best suited to Losail’s high-speed calls for, and Alonso thinks it was important for the squad to point out at the very least some indicators of promise earlier than the tip of the marketing campaign.

“It does assist for certain as a result of the crew is rarely stopping working, even after we are ranging from the again,” he stated.

“There are lots of research, lots of studying, and lots of classes that we’re taking.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photos

“After the [sprint] race, we had been extra aggressive than earlier grand prix, however not in a contented place. We had been combating the low-speed understeer, high-speed oversteer.

“So the automobile was probably not collectively when it comes to low to excessive velocity. So we made some set-up adjustments.

“Now the automobile was higher. It exhibits that there’s all the time a relentless work in looking for efficiency.

“If you’re combating for podium or if you’re combating for going out of Q1, I feel the crew is all the time motivated. So it isn’t that we’d like the end result to spice up everybody, however it’ll all the time assist to be aggressive occasionally.”

Pictures from Qatar GP Dash Race & Qualifying