Aston Martin lacking pace in Las Vegas: Alonso drops back to P11, Stroll crashes out early
Aston Martin had a weekend to forget in Las Vegas. Fernando Alonso fell back from seventh on the grid to P13 and moved up to P11 after McLaren’s disqualification. Lance Stroll retired on the first lap after a collision with Gabriel Bortoleto.
Alonso was self-critical after the race. “Definitely not the pace this weekend, very challenging, all free practice sessions,” said the Spaniard. Apart from qualifying in wet conditions, they weren’t fast enough.
“We deserved to be out of the points,” Alonso clarified. The team was also a bit slow at top speed. It was very difficult to fight outside, they will try again next week.
Alonso in the chaos at the start
The start went well for Alonso at first, then chaos ensued in turn one. Liam Lawson pushed Piastri, Alonso, and Leclerc off the track from the inside. “I don’t know if it was investigated or not, but the start was definitely not good,” Alonso explained. The race stewards did not impose a penalty on Lawson. The reasoning was that he had been forced into the situation by George Russell’s braking. A domino effect: Russell braked, Lawson tried to avoid him and hit Oscar Piastri in the process.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen the replay yet, but that was the cause,” said Alonso. Wrong place, wrong time. The action caused damage to his front wing, but the team reported no loss of performance.
Stroll torpedoed through no fault of his own
“So the pace wasn’t there,” Alonso noted. Despite the reassuring message from the pits, the AMR24 simply lacked speed. Aston Martin lost significant time to the competition, especially on the straights.
For Stroll, the race ended even earlier. Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto caught the Canadian in the first series of corners, causing considerable damage. Stroll had to retire the car, a retirement through no fault of his own on the opening lap. Alonso continued with damage, but performance suffered noticeably. After promising pace in wet qualifying, the dry race conditions were sobering. The team tried a one-stop strategy and switched from medium to hard tires.
A glimmer of hope in the wet
At least they managed to undercut Oliver Bearman. However, the Haas driver struck back in the second stint and overtook Alonso again. Despite all their efforts, they simply lacked the pace to hold on to a points-scoring position.
The entire weekend was difficult for Aston Martin. Only in wet qualifying did the AMR24 show some competitive lap times. In the race, there was no sign of this, with the pace not good enough at either the front or the back.
The full focus is now on Qatar. Aston Martin must quickly analyze the performance issues and find solutions to be more competitive again in the penultimate race of the season. Time for improvements is running out.