Fernando Alonso is missing 22 points
16 grand prix provide a lot of opportunities, and Aston Martin believes that Fernando Alonso should have scored 22 more points than he actually has. This would place the British team only two points behind the fifth-placed team, Williams.
A Formula 1 season leads to many interpretations, but we can probably all agree that neither of the two Spanish drivers is having good luck this year.
Carlos Sainz has suffered numerous setbacks —many of them caused by others— and Fernando Alonso cannot boast of having taken advantage of all the opportunities, mainly due to reliability issues, poor strategies, or untimely safety cars.
"As long as we have a good car next year, we will have luck"
The Monza retirement
Good examples of this are the engine failure in Monaco when Alonso had secured sixth place or the retirement in Monza, when eighth place was already a given. And precisely about this last incident, the Asturian has spoken, after it was confirmed that the suspension failure was caused by external factors to the team and the car.
"No, the truth is that it didn't surprise me," Alonso responds when asked if he was surprised by the news. "I was told on Monday or Tuesday after the race." I already knew it wasn't due to hitting the curb. It was just a suspension failure. If it wasn't something from production or quality control, obviously that's better.
"It's just bad luck, it's a stone. But yes, there's nothing we can do now. Unfortunately, once again bad luck and new points we lost in the race," laments Fernando Alonso.
There will be no modifications to the car
After the suspension failure, there has been speculation about the need for Aston Martin to reinforce the suspension arms of their cars. However, Fernando Alonso denies that this is necessary.
"No, I don't think so. You will always be exposed to some external objects that can go towards the car," argues the Spaniard. "But what happened to us happens in one out of every ten million cases. So let's hope that in ten million races we don't have another failure like that."
"These things can happen... I remember 2022, when the car wasn't that bad, the Alpine, and we were competitive," adds Alonso, recalling his last year with the Enstone team. "And I suffered retirements, always in the races where I was going to finish fifth or sixth. I think that year the team counted about 55 or 60 lost points."
"And this year we already have 22, I think", he continues. "It's a shame that we can't finish the races on our own merits when we are in the points zone. And then, when we are slow because we are not competitive, everything usually goes well until we lower the checkered flag and we don't score points."
"But that's how things are, that's how the sport is. As long as we have a good car next year, we will have luck. We don't ask for good luck, but normal luck is fine," concludes Fernando Alonso.
Fotos: Aston Martin F1
