Fernando Alonso’s sobering assessment of Aston Martin’s performance in Belgium: Why team boss Andy Cowell remains confident
Lance Stroll’s 13th place in the sprint race was the best Aston Martin could manage at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps. So it’s no surprise how Fernando Alonso sums up his team’s weekend: “It was very bad.”
Aston Martin had gone all in on wet weather, even in qualifying. But because it stayed dry, Alonso and Stroll ended up at the back of the grid – at least with a chance to move up in the Grand Prix if conditions allowed. “But then we only drove six laps in the wet and 38 in the dry in sunshine – and we were slow,” said Alonso.
Even his early pit stop on lap 11 to change from intermediates to slicks was not a stroke of genius, but pure necessity: “It was simply that the intermediates were at the end of their life. They just weren’t holding up anymore, so we had to change,” explains Alonso. “So it wasn’t a bold decision like at Silverstone.”
There was no realistic chance of points for the two-time world champion, who was at best 13th in the Grand Prix at one point. In the end, he only managed P17, “because we made another stop that cost me a few places,” said Alonso. Teammate Stroll also finished outside the top 10 in 14th place with just one stop.
Why team boss Cowell still sees positives
Aston Martin team boss Andy Cowell nevertheless sees the positives from the race weekend in Spa and is particularly pleased with his team’s front wing experiment: “The wing will deliver significantly more on a track like Hungary, which requires more downforce, than here in Spa with little downforce.”
Incidentally, the new front wing was not used in the race: “We took it off again because it was designed more for wet conditions. Instead, we opted for a configuration with less downforce to better balance the car.”
But that didn’t help: Aston Martin trailed hopelessly behind. Cowell admits that it is “naturally disappointing” not to score points in either the sprint or the Grand Prix. “But as far as the operational side of this weekend is concerned, I can’t complain. Now we’ll fly back, analyze the data, and then we’ll see if we can score points in Hungary.”
Will Hungary be better? Alonso with gallows humor
Alonso, meanwhile, is practicing gallows humor: He assumes that things will go better for Aston Martin at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest. After all, they can’t do worse than P19 and P20 in qualifying.
Cowell wants to “take another close look” at qualifying in particular, because “we feel that we’re missing something in terms of pure qualifying pace,” according to the team boss. “But we’ll keep looking and analyzing what the problem is.”
Perhaps it’s down to Aston Martin’s internal priorities? Cowell admits: “We are investing very little in the performance development of this car. We currently have zero aerodynamicists working on the project.” Only a ‘negligible’ number of employees were involved in the latest updates. Nevertheless, Aston Martin has “learned a lot” in the process.
But what are Cowell’s thoughts looking ahead to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, another high-speed track? “I’m not too worried about that,” he says. “Hopefully, we can put together a good overall package starting in Hungary.”
