Alonso: Aston prioritizing 2025 development over short-term gains
Fernando Alonso has revealed that Aston Martin's focus for the remainder of the 2024 Formula 1 season is on gathering valuable data for their 2025 car development rather than on improving its current level of performance.
Aston has endured a challenging season year-to-date that has seen the Silverstone-based outfit struggle to keep up with front-running rivals, with its best result being a fifth-place finish at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
While teams like McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes have made significant strides, Aston Martin has faced setbacks, particularly with a major upgrade package introduced at Imola that failed to deliver the expected performance gains.
But Alonso also attributed several poor showing, such as in Spain and in Austria, to "some mistakes on the car configurations" related to setup issues.
As the team works to correct its course, Alonso has suggested that finishing in the lower points-paying positions might be the best they can hope for in the upcoming races.
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“Ninth and 10th, every race, is what we fight for,” he said in Zandvoort on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
“[The] top four teams are between 30 and 45 seconds in front of us every race. To be in the top eight, we need a DNF from the cars in front.
“So, yeah, to secure that ninth and 10th is not that easy. In fact, we never did in the last few races.”
Given the gap between Aston Martin and the leading teams, Alonso emphasized that the team's focus should be on laying the groundwork for a stronger 2025 campaign.
“Yeah, I think scoring points and being in Q3 will be the target every weekend. But this is in terms of results and things that you can see.”
Behind the scenes, however, the team is already shifting its focus to next year.
“In the background, we have a lot of test items, a lot of ideas in the car that we want to test in preparation for next year's car and things like that.
“So, that will be my biggest motivation or my biggest hope for the remaining ten races – to have a good understanding of many of the question marks we have and finish the season with a clear idea.
“It doesn't matter if we are in the points or not, but we need to make sure that we start next year on the proper path.”
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