According to Fernando Alonso, it is a great loss that Lance Stroll, who knows the team well, had to miss the test in Bahrain. It will take several races before they are able to exploit their new car to its full potential.
Aston Martin finished the first two days in the top three in the Bahrain test, but there weren’t long third-place finishes on Saturday. Felipe Drugovich completed 77 laps in the first four hours and finished the day 10th, Fernando Alonso finished one place ahead of him with 80 laps and a simulation of the evening race.
Although he has just arrived, the Spaniard has become the confirmed point of the team in recent days, because for the moment only his participation in the Bahrain Grand Prix next week is confirmed. Teammate Lance Stroll missed the Test with a wrist injury, and it remains questionable whether he will miss the opening game of the season as well.
Although Alonso was able to sit in his new car for an extra half day due to his absence from Canada, he revealed after testing that he would have been happier with Stroll, as he would be a reference point for the team and he would need it.
“It’s a great cut. I missed him so much. With a couple of my notes or feelings, we didn’t know if I was just with a new team and car, or if it was something of an Aston Martin that Lance would discover.”
“The feel of the brake pedal, the power steering — with things like that, I don’t know if that’s the team’s heritage or just this car. I can’t do without it, so I hope it arrives soon.” said the two-time world champion.
Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)Like him, his team also grope in the dark with certain things. While he will have to get used to the new team, Aston Martin engineers will have to work with a car built on very different principles after 2022. According to Alonso, this is still felt in its effectiveness. “It’s been a very important and good week for us. Finally with the new car. At Silverstone we did the movie day, but you don’t really feel it, we only did eight laps. It’s time now, we have to make the car as fast as we can for next week.”
“We feel there is a lot in the car, but we didn’t have enough time, just three days. We are moving step by step and the team is working hard.”
The Spaniard didn’t care much about the opponents, they just had enough to do. “I just got out of the car, didn’t check the lap times. The car felt good all three days. We tried the settings on very different roads and always found the positives in these new roads. Obviously we have to change our philosophy for this car compared to last year’s car, and this Worrying in some ways, as we’ll need two races to perfect the package.” said forward.
