Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll do not consider finishing second in the Constructors’ Championship after falling to fourth to be an unrealistic goal.
Aston Martin had its weakest race weekend this year at Monza and, thanks to Ferrari’s superiority, lost out on second place in the Constructors’ Championship. However, the team’s performance director, Tom McCullough, has set ambitious targets for the team for the remaining races: not only do they want to regain third place, but also the second place they had achieved in the first half of the year, ahead of Mercedes, which has been slipping away in the meantime!
The two teams are currently separated by 56 points, with Ferrari leading by 11 points over the Greens.
Both Aston Martin drivers were asked at the press conference in Singapore on Thursday how realistic the goal mentioned by McCullough was. “we will see” Fernando Alonso answered. “It will be a long way to Abu Dhabi. There will be plenty of waves for everyone. In some races during the season, we were second, and in other races we felt like we were only fifth or sixth. It is difficult to guess based on that.”
“Anyway, our current position is a privilege, where we can fight with the front teams and still enjoy every moment of every weekend. But we will see. We have to progress from race to race, be open to all possibilities, and if we score a lot of points, We can fight for second place.”
For this to be the case, not only will he and his teammate, Lance Stroll, have collected far fewer points this year, he will also have to hand over the points. According to the Canadian, it is not impossible for them to overcome the two great rivals, but he admitted that their situation is more difficult than it was in the first half of the season.
“If we have the pace we had at the beginning of the year, and if we perform well on the weekends, I think it is possible.”
“But the competition is tougher than it was in the first half of the year. At that time, it was clear that we had the second fastest car, and then we fell back in a few races, especially on tracks with low downforce. But if we get back to our level once “If we score a lot of points every weekend, it will come in very handy.”
He continued: “The competition is very close with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, who also look fast. Williams is also very fast in some races. The whole field is close together. If we can achieve some speed in our car and get back to the beginning of the year, it will be very possible.” Excursion of thought.
The weakness at Monza is known for the nature of the track, so Alonso and Stroll are confident that the AMR23 will be more competitive in Singapore. “I hope we get better” Alonso said. “It’s hard to say. We weren’t competitive in Monza, that’s for sure. Hopefully we’ll be in better shape here, but the situation is very tight. In some street courses, like Monaco, we felt like we were okay, but not in Baku. So we’ll see. “We are trying to gain momentum from the first free practice.”
Lance Stroll (Photo: XPB)Nuzha added: “Throughout the year, we were basically better on the high-downforce tracks than the low-downforce tracks. Our efficiency is not good enough.”
Alonso did not want to speculate on whether they had a chance of winning. When asked what this required, he said: “It’s a lot. First, you have to see the checkered flag. This competition is very tough. Everything is hotter than usual, the walls are very close, like on any street track, and you need to have confidence in the car you have in Monaco and Baku. We’ll see In free training if we have this confidence.”
