Alonso: “It has been a good step forward, in the race and qualifying, and now the new engine arrives”
Fernando Alonso You can go on vacation satisfied and with much better future prospects regarding the comeback you want to make. Aston Martin in the second part of the season and, above all, in 2027.
The time has come to decide whether to continue or not, but after the great step forward that the new car created by Newey and released this weekend in Hungary, the excitement of the challenge that the team has in its hands to continue progressing and building with a good foundation, seems too tempting.
And this Sunday, the missing confirmation came from the new AMR26. The car made a great qualitative leap in terms of handling, more docile and predictable, and above all, with very good aerodynamic performance that Sainz He did not hesitate to consider himself “the best in the middle zone” in that area. It remained to be seen how the car behaved in the race, and it also responded.
Honda had already eliminated the vibrations from Friday with its work for Saturday and they did not appear in the race either, where the car confirmed its move to the front in the long run.with a very good tire degradation due to which Alonso was able to stay on the track for 36 laps with the soft tire on its first set of rubber, hot on the Alpine de Colapinto’s heels for much of the first part of the race.
“Yes, I think so. I think it’s a good step forward, both in terms of quality and in terms of career. “It’s a new reference point to work with for the second part of the year.”said Fernando before the written press after the Hungarian GP.
It is a new reference point to work with for the second part of the year
“I think it’s more or less what you would expect. The correlation is good and you can see the improvement in performance and, as I said, I think he is… Obviously, it’s still early days with this new carit’s a completely new car, a new concept, so maybe there’s more to do in terms of tuning, optimization and things like that. In addition, in the next race we will also have the engine improvement. It will be interesting to check Zandvoort where we are and why we can fight,” added the man from Oviedo.
There may be more to do in terms of tuning, optimization and things like that. In addition, in the next race we will also have the engine improvement. It will be interesting to see in Zandvoort where we are and what we can fight for
If in qualifying, with one turn, the car suddenly overtook cadillac, Williams and fought with haasin the race it also showed much better cornering performance than the Alpine. A very good base to continue growing, now with a clear direction for the car and certain that the simulation data from its factory is good.
All good news to move forward safely. There is only one doubt missing: the engine. At Honda they trust the step forward, but we will see how much (and its reliability. There is a lot to check)because the current propellant deficit is high. That hindered Alonso on the straights, but he made up for it with the cornering to finish 14th.
It could have been 13th, but he entered the pits with a virtual safety car at the end and lost that position to his teammate Stroll. But the result was the least important. The feelings are very positive and the future looks much better. Now, the next focus is the new engine that Honda will bring to Zandvoort, with more power.
The new Honda engine and more progress
A little pressure! (laughs). I mean, we are one team, we work together, we know our weaknesses and we try to help each other. I think Honda tried to address some of the car’s weaknesses at the beginning of the year. Now, with the chassis, we try to help Honda as much as we can, also in terms of consistency between laps and deployment. I think Aston Martin is also helping us a lot in that sense, when it comes to the software department. So, like I said, I think there’s a long way to go. We understand it, we are aware of it, but we hope that this is the first step and that both factories gain confidence in what they do. “That’s probably going to be the most important thing of all over the next few months.”
No engine vibrations
“Yeah, they got better; on Saturday morning they completely fixed the oscillations. And obviously on Saturday morning we changed the power unit for a newer one. So maybe it was the old power unit that gave some problems at the end of its life or something. But, yeah, Saturday and Sunday were good.”
