Fernando Alonso has fired a warning shot at Aston Martin's underperforming Formula 1 World Championship team after finishing outside the points at the Spanish Grand Prix.
His message was simple: “It's time to work harder, talk less, and give more.”
While there is no doubting the diligence of the people at Aston Martin, he is right to point out that the rate at which the car's performance is improving is not good enough.
While it was among the four fastest cars measured by single-lap pace in each of the first five races, it has since bounced between fifth and ninth. In Spain, the Aston Martin finished sixth and was just ahead of Sauber.
That the race was not late is what explains Alonso's unexpected joy – “I'm happy with the result,” he said after qualifying – which he put in the context of “our expectations were a little more pessimistic.”
He was more negative after finishing 11th in the race – and could see no reason to expect Austria this weekend to be any better.
“It will also be painful because you have some Barcelona characteristics like long corners and high-speed sections, so it will be another difficult weekend,” Alonso said. “Also Silverstone, probably. So we can't get too frustrated. It's time to work harder, talk less, give more, and that's what we want to do.
There are updates to come, most likely for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but while Alonso expressed some optimism, he also sounded a warning shot about his team's faltering progress.
“I'm looking forward to [to the upgrades] “But we updated the car a lot and we did not achieve the result,” Alonso said.
“Now it's also about everything we bring to the track, it delivers what we expect and we start to improve. So we need to work hard, improve every race, but without a lot of talk and promises.
Aston Martin has made a strong enough start to the season, albeit nowhere near the level it had in 2023 when Alonso claimed six podium finishes in the first eight races before inevitably finding it tougher as others improved.
There were six top-six finishes in three of the fourth races and overall the McLaren were expected to finish fourth. There were some particularly eye-catching qualifying performances in a car whose tires worked well in the preparation laps and produced good grip on one attack lap.
It has stumbled into more modest territory since then, with the exception of a mini-recovery in Canada where it took the most points of the year with 14 thanks to Alonso and Lance Stroll who finished sixth and seventh. It was on a track that favored the car's characteristics.
But the Aston Martin doesn't do well in long, fast corners and, according to Alonso, lacks downforce.
As is always the case with the current generation of Formula 1 cars, generating massive downforce from powerful Venturi tunnels is easy enough, but the real art is to do it in a controlled way without causing bounce or yaw, while achieving a good balance through Controlling characteristics such as the center of air pressure.
Over the past year or so, Aston Martin's attempts to improve the car and widen its performance window have made it generally more difficult to drive.
“We tested some different settings,” Alonso said. “In these long corners, the cars behave differently. Our car was behaving completely differently in Bahrain, and after the first package we gave, we changed the characteristics of the car a little bit.
“We can mitigate that a little bit with settings and I think we understand more and more.
“Now we have a plan, let's see if it contributes to a better result. But we are more confident than we were in previous months.”
This confidence is encouraging. Alonso says it is now a matter of getting through the next two parts of the triathlon before going to Hungary where the promotion will be offered.
According to Aston Martin Performance Director Tom McCullough, there is scope to close the gap at the front as the season moves into the second half.
“We know what we're trying to achieve, but it's very difficult to achieve,” McCullough said. “That's the point, both mechanically and aerodynamically.
“The suspension doesn't move as much on these cars, so you have a lot less mechanical authority than previous generation cars. Aerodynamically, we're working hard to deliver updates as soon as possible to address the issues.”
“The game is moving very quickly. Our car now in gross payload, in characteristics, in shifting DRS and efficiency is a world apart from last year's car. But it doesn't really matter, because everyone has improved. It's a relative improvement.
“We are doing the best we can in the factory. And in the new factory, we are starting to see the benefits of that in the delivery time of some parts.
“I think that between now and the end of the season, we have every potential to make some relative gains compared to what we were able to do in the past.”
Alonso's comments about the lack of upgrades and the unwelcome change in characteristics were obvious, but were offset by positivity about Hungary's upgrade.
But this is Alonso, and he doesn’t say things for no reason. It’s hard not to conclude that he’s putting some extra pressure on the team to secure a top-four finish in search of the kind of stride McLaren – and more recently Mercedes – have made.
