Alonso sees danger of midfield stagnation for Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso echoes his mentor Flavio Briatore’s sentiment that Aston Martin faces a potential performance slide in the Formula 1 midfield.

During a tough weekend for Alonso, marked by a crash and a “boring” run to 19th place in both qualifying and the race, Briatore stated: “Instead of moving forward it seems like they are going backwards.”

“Many (car) improvements, yes, but sometimes it is better to have less improvements overall but more that work well,” he commented.

The team’s famed aerodynamicist and technical director Dan Fallows approached the Imola weekend promoting an “aggressive” set of upgrades for the 2024 car at Imola.

After the race, Alonso shares Briatore’s view that Aston Martin is now at risk of stagnation.

“We are aware of the situation,” said the 42-year-old, who has signed with the Silverstone-based team into the new regulations era starting in 2026.

“We see that the top three teams are a little far away at the moment, and even Alpha Tauri (RB) is progressing. If you don’t improve the two-three tenths that you have to improve now in each grand prix, you are in the middle zone.”

Pedro de la Rosa, a team ambassador and close ally of Alonso, admits the problem is with Aston Martin.

“When a driver like Fernando suffers, it is clear that it is not an easy car to drive. He is taking risks, climbing the walls,” the fellow Spaniard told DAZN.

“There are other teams that have done a better job, so we needed to use the race to analyse all these new pieces. We have to get a car with more versatility so that it gives confidence to the drivers.”

Alonso is not feeling optimistic about the upcoming Monaco GP.

“It depends on the car,” he said. “If it doesn’t behave well in Monaco, it’s torture to go fast on that track.

“We need to concentrate on Saturday, because Sunday will be like here – no one will be able to overtake, so all efforts will be directed to Saturday.”