SHANGHAI: Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia.
Silverstone-based Aston Martin endured a horror start after serious issues with their Honda power unit and a lack of spare parts.
Two-time world champion Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll had to endure extreme vibration in the chassis caused by the power unit, which was feared could cause the drivers permanent nerve damage.
“The situation unfortunately didn’t change within four or five days since Melbourne, so it will be a difficult weekend,” Alonso told reporters at the Shanghai International Circuit.
“We’ll limit the laps in one or two sessions as we are short on parts. We need laps, to find the window on the chassis side.
“I’ll be happy if we leave China with a more or less normal practice, more or less normal qualifying.”
The Spaniard could not put a timeframe on when improvements might come.
“What can I do within the team? Work harder, help Honda as much as I can,” said Alonso.
“We can allocate resources to help Honda with the power unit. We are one team, it is a bumpy start that I hope won’t last too long.
“We are pushing, we have very talented people in the team, so I hope within a couple of grands prix, we can have a normal weekend.
“To be competitive will take more time. Once we fix the reliability, we will be behind on power and things.”
The 44-year-old veteran has been in Formula One for more than two decades and has driven vastly different iterations of cars from the old V10 petrol engines through to the current complex hybrid configuration.
Despite the issues he said was embracing the challenge of the new cars enthusiastically in what could be his final season on the grid.
His Aston Martin contract expires at the end of 2026.
“Do we enjoy driving these cars? Yes, because we love racing,” Alonso said.
“I do four or five 24-hour races because I love racing and I love driving. So if you jump into an F1 car, you enjoy going fast.
“But it is a challenge, a different challenge.
“I was super lucky to race in (the last) era and I feel lucky to race in both.”
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Alonso fears more pain in China with struggling Aston Martin
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Alonso fears more pain in China with struggling Aston Martin
- Fernando Alonso said Thursday he expects another difficult weekend wrestling with his new Aston Martin at the Chinese Grand Prix after failing to finish the season-opener in Australia
Verstappen fumes ‘whole day a disaster’ after Shanghai struggles
- A fuming Max Verstappen said Friday was “a disaster” after torrid practice and sprint qualifying sessions at the Chinese Grand Prix
SHANGHAI: A fuming Max Verstappen said Friday was “a disaster” after torrid practice and sprint qualifying sessions at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s Red Bull was almost two seconds behind championship leader George Russell’s Mercedes as he finished in eighth place in both sessions in Shanghai.
The Red Bulls struggled for pace again on the second race weekend of the season with their new in-house power units having replaced Honda as engine supplier.
They are also clearly far from getting to grips with the sweeping new aerodynamic and chassis regulations as Formula One enters an era of a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.
“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise: no grip — I honestly think that is the biggest problem — no grip, no balance,” said an angry four-time world champion Verstappen, whose best lap was a colossal 1.734 sec adrift of Russell.
“(We are) just losing massive amounts of time in the corners and then of course because of that you start to trigger other little problems.
“But the biggest problem for us is that the cornering is completely out.”
His teammate Isack Hadjar fared even worse, he was 10th, barely scraping into the top-10 shootout in sprint qualifying.
It prompted Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies to apologize to Verstappen.
“Sorry, Max,” said Mekies over team radio at the end of the session.
“Tough one, a lot to learn. The weekend is still long, we need to learn from (it). Let’s try again.”
Verstappen, who fought back from a qualifying crash in the opening race in Australia last weekend to finish sixth from 20th on the grid, was at a loss as to the way forward.
“I don’t know at the moment what we can do. We’ll see,” said the Dutchman.
Verstappen’s Red Bull was almost two seconds behind championship leader George Russell’s Mercedes as he finished in eighth place in both sessions in Shanghai.
The Red Bulls struggled for pace again on the second race weekend of the season with their new in-house power units having replaced Honda as engine supplier.
They are also clearly far from getting to grips with the sweeping new aerodynamic and chassis regulations as Formula One enters an era of a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.
“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise: no grip — I honestly think that is the biggest problem — no grip, no balance,” said an angry four-time world champion Verstappen, whose best lap was a colossal 1.734 sec adrift of Russell.
“(We are) just losing massive amounts of time in the corners and then of course because of that you start to trigger other little problems.
“But the biggest problem for us is that the cornering is completely out.”
His teammate Isack Hadjar fared even worse, he was 10th, barely scraping into the top-10 shootout in sprint qualifying.
It prompted Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies to apologize to Verstappen.
“Sorry, Max,” said Mekies over team radio at the end of the session.
“Tough one, a lot to learn. The weekend is still long, we need to learn from (it). Let’s try again.”
Verstappen, who fought back from a qualifying crash in the opening race in Australia last weekend to finish sixth from 20th on the grid, was at a loss as to the way forward.
“I don’t know at the moment what we can do. We’ll see,” said the Dutchman.
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