Aston Martin in trouble
It’s well-known that Fernando Alonso—along with Max Verstappen—is not a huge fan of the Sprint Race. However, his frustration tends to increase on weekends when Aston Martin struggles with setup, resulting in poor performance and results. This was the case on Friday at the Brazilian Grand Prix, with both AMR24 cars eliminated in the first qualifying session and forced to start from 16th and 19th positions with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Fernando Alonso speaks out
It’s easy to imagine Fernando Alonso’s frustration in his post-sprint qualifying interviews at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo. His disappointment was evident after being excluded in SQ1: “We didn’t have the pace and tried to make some setup changes after FP1. We thought they might improve the car’s pace, but we were still more focused on Sunday than on Saturday’s mini-race. In the Sprint, it’s very unlikely we’ll score points; it’ll be more like a free practice session for us.”
“The Sprint race means practically nothing to us,” Fernando Alonso added, “since only eight cars score points, and even if you’re in eighth or seventh, you only take home one or two points at most. So it’s a format that rewards those who are fast on Friday evening and Saturday, while we’re much more focused on Sunday’s race. That’s where we need to place all our bets. So that’s how we view these weekends, which are somewhat pointless until Saturday afternoon. And that’s the case this weekend as well.” – the former Ferrari and McLaren driver concluded at the end of the Sprint qualifying session for the Brazil sprint race.
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