After the exhibition held last Sunday ZandvoortFernando Alonso, who returned to the podium after two and a half months of drought by overtaking in history, came to Monza confidently despite knowing that the Italian circuit did not support Aston Martin much. One of the AMR23’s weak points so far has been the lack of top speed required for Italy, but Asturian assures that the “step forward is confirmed” and hopes to be able to fight for a good result this weekend.
“Monza is guarded with special and great care. The step forward has been confirmed, we have made it, but we still have to wait.” Singapore anyone Japan. Monza is a very special track where drag and aerodynamic efficiency are important, it was our weak spot in the beginning. We were going very slow on straight lines ahead, on paper this track isn’t doing very well for us, let’s see if we can get a good result?” As the records on the long line of the Temple of Speed have been reached.
“I come here without specific goals, wanting to hit the track. how does the car behave At the beginning of the year, we would have put this race on our agenda as one of our concerns because Aston Martin was too fast on the corners and too slow on the straights. It’s true that we’ve improved a lot, but this is still a track that we’re somehow afraid of,” he admits.
F1’s age is not a matter
One of Alonso’s main goals is to distance Hamilton in his fight for third place in the Drivers’ World Championship. The sixth-placed Briton in Zandvoort is currently 12 points. To Alonso who is compatible 42 years At a press conference in July, he was asked about the seven-time Mercedes champion renewal, which was confirmed this morning.
“Teams choose the challenge against time in the motor world. rally, MotoGP or F1 chooses the slowest of the two pilots. If I were team manager right now and had to choose Hamilton, or the youngest driver on the grid, or a promising F2 driver, I would stay with Hamilton until I’m 80, until someone shows me he’s faster.”, Fernando defended .
“Age is an issue if you’re demotivated or not able to show 100 percent of your performance, if you’re tired of traveling a lot and the life we live. But Hamilton continues to give his best and that’s important.” his only life and concern F1as in my case”, Alonso went deeper.
“homework completed” in Monza
Aston Martin’s The Netherlands received a major update after the summer break, including new ground, to reinvigorate the competitive level of Alonso’s six podium finishes at the start of the season. Expectations were met and the Spaniard finished second at Verstappen’s home. However, in the team silverstone They continue a cautious conversation.
“If you want to play a role in the championship, you have to be competitive on any track. On tracks like this, it’s important. Monza or this year Las Vegas, do your homework. I think we’ve done our homework for Monza and we should do it for Singapore too”, Aston Martin’s boss thinks, Mike Crack. “At the moment we have a race where we are performing better than before. We have taken a step forward, but we have to confirm this in the next races, because we must not forget that some competitors also had problems in the race.” Zandvoort. Monza is different because the track is very different with very different straights and small rear wings and we have to see if we can confirm that,” he concludes.