Why Is Aston Martin Struggling At Austin?
Both drivers are struggling with their new upgrades.
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00:00 Hello everyone, we are back on the sofa in our home base in Austin because we are reporting
00:06 from the track of the United States Grand Prix.
00:08 Now one of the big questions this week has been what is happening with Aston Martin?
00:13 They seem to be failing, they seem to be just losing the pace they once had.
00:18 I mean they were getting podiums at the beginning of the season, Alonso was happy which is something
00:23 we love to see and now they are surrounded by controversy, a lack of pace, lack of performance
00:33 and questions.
00:35 So let's answer some of those questions today shall we?
00:38 First of all I think it's worth highlighting that this weekend is a sprint race which has
00:43 made it difficult for every single team.
00:46 What's made it extra difficult for Aston Martin is the fact that they brought upgrades and
00:52 upgrades sound, they sound great don't they?
00:54 Upgrades, who doesn't like the word upgrade?
00:56 But utilising those upgrades is a very different story in F1.
01:02 You have to have time on track to collect that data, to use that data and to set up
01:08 the car around that data.
01:10 So they haven't been able to do that because with it being a sprint weekend they've only
01:15 had a single practice.
01:16 Now qualifying did not go well did it?
01:20 No, so if we just go back to the very beginning, so that only free practice session that they
01:26 had, they didn't really have it did they?
01:29 Oh no I completely forgot!
01:31 Because so both Alonso and Lance Stroll ran into brake issues.
01:37 Lance completed I believe five laps but none of those were laps where they learnt anything.
01:44 Alonso did get back out on track and I think he said he did six or seven decent laps.
01:50 Yeah, but that's not enough.
01:53 That was basically written off at that point.
01:55 That then really showed in qualifying because they were both out in Q1.
02:02 That's the first time Alonso's been out of Q1, well not into Q3 for the year.
02:06 Yeah, he's broken his record.
02:07 I know.
02:08 A record that again we love to see.
02:12 Not so good for Alonso.
02:15 And then Stroll, he had brake issues and he collected no data whatsoever and that does
02:22 mean that they don't practice at this track.
02:25 This track is incredibly volatile, there's subsidence around the track which means each
02:30 year there are different bumps, there's different shapes of tarmac and they've re-tarmacked
02:36 anyway a large portion of the track so there's a lot to learn.
02:40 So they went in on the back foot didn't they?
02:42 Yeah.
02:43 And then so yeah, both out in Q1, 17th and 19th Alonso, Stroll for today.
02:50 Which actually looking at that you think, okay yeah the car's at fault, the drivers
02:56 are both doing pretty well.
02:58 Yeah, I don't think this is a conversation of Stroll versus Alonso because I just don't
03:07 think that's fair this weekend.
03:09 I agree.
03:10 And then obviously we had the shootout, they both got through to SQ2 in the shootout.
03:15 Yeah.
03:16 But again, sprint race, Stroll with three laps to go, he had to retire because of more
03:21 brake issues.
03:22 Yeah, it's just been bad news after bad news hasn't it for Aston Martin?
03:28 But I mean where did they go wrong?
03:30 They threw, what was it, halfway through the season?
03:34 As soon as their dominance, kind of, not dominance but as soon as their performance left them,
03:40 it was because of an upgrade and they just made the wrong turn.
03:44 And now they have brought an upgrade on a sprint weekend.
03:48 What I expect is McLaren is 11 points behind Aston Martin at the beginning of the weekend
03:54 and I have a feeling that they knew that they were going to get taken by McLaren because
03:59 it's a sprint weekend, there are so many points up for grabs.
04:02 So they thought, you know what, let's just get as much data as early on in the season
04:06 as possible from this upgrade, let's just throw it at the sprint weekend and see what
04:10 happens because either way they're going to lose out.
04:12 Yeah.
04:13 It's just such a shame because if you go back to the beginning of the season, which feels
04:19 like an absolute lifetime ago now, they were the biggest shock.
04:25 How they made that huge a jump from 2022 to 2023, it was amazing.
04:33 Everyone was absolutely living for it.
04:35 To see Alonso back on the podium, he was like, by the end of the year, I will win a race.
04:43 And we were hoping for it as well.
04:45 I will overtake Perez in the standings.
04:48 I mean, well, he's still good.
04:50 Okay, not the conversation.
04:54 But they did admit that the earlier upgrade was the wrong direction.
05:00 But since then, it's like they've been scrambling.
05:03 Yeah, it almost feels like every part of that team has broken down from the strategy to
05:09 the pit stops to the upgrades and the drivers, specifically one driver.
05:14 Let's talk about Lance Stroll.
05:16 He lost a lot of confidence last week.
05:21 Well, not last weekend, a couple of weeks ago at Qatar.
05:24 I feel he's lost something since then.
05:29 He's come under a lot of public scrutiny.
05:33 I feel like not only is he now fighting the car, but he's almost fighting his own persona.
05:41 He's trying to get back into the good eyes of the public.
05:45 I feel maybe emotionally he's going through quite a lot right now.
05:51 After yesterday, he was shouting.
05:53 He was really unhappy.
05:56 It's never good when drivers can't control their emotions.
05:59 The best drivers are able to control their emotions.
06:04 There's still time in the season for Aston Martin to pick back up.
06:08 I think they actually have done the right thing, bringing in the upgrades this weekend.
06:14 Otherwise, next race, they'd have to start from the beginning again.
06:20 I know next race isn't a sprint, but they have the data from this weekend now.
06:27 Yeah, it was a gamble.
06:28 I don't think it's fully paid off, but it hasn't paid off.
06:32 Not yet.
06:33 Not yet.
06:34 I do agree.
06:35 Yeah, I just feel like they were going to lose out either way.
06:39 I feel like they've dropped further down the grid than they expected to, but at least they
06:44 have the data coming in.
06:45 So hopefully next race, we get to see the real performance or something closer to the
06:51 real performance of these upgrades.
06:55 We will be at the track all weekend.
06:56 Well, actually, there's not much of the weekend left, is there?
06:59 All Sunday we'll be reporting from the paddock, so please keep up to date with everything
07:03 we're doing at F1 Briefings.
07:04 That is si.com/f1briefings.
07:09 We'll see you there.
07:10 It's going to be a really exciting race, actually, I think.
07:12 So looking forward to it.