Alonso, optimistic for the future: “Yes, with this chassis, yes. And with the engine, we have about two or three races to optimize it”

Fernando Alonso achieved a great comeback in the F1 Dutch GPfrom 18th to 9th, with a renewed Aston Martin AMR26 which shone with its own light for its aerodynamic load, good performance and spectacular tire management in the hands of a Fernando who executed a difficult plan to perfection to reach the points after two long stints and after overtaking Albon despite having a worse engine and defending himself against Gasly despite having much more used wheels. He nailed it.

Therefore, Fernando Alonso seemed happy after the race. Not because of his personal performance, since he always maximized the car he had been given. The difference is that this time, the car is very different and allowed him to send a message of strength and hope.

The beginning of the course is far away, where Alonso had to drive a car with a bad chassis, heavy and with a bad engine. Now, the chassis part has changed radically after the improvements created by Newey, premiered in Hungary and completed in Zandvoort.

“We have tried to run a good race. We probably don’t have the pace of the cars in front, but well, we tried to do something different with the strategy. Our car is now quite good in the corners and we take good care of the tires, we already saw it in Budapest. So we tried to make one stop less than the others and thus venture into something more risky and it turned out well today,” said the man from Oviedo, who highlighted how difficult it was to have to fight against cars with much higher top speed due to the lack of power that his engine still has, but above all, because of the problems of manageability that Honda must resolve, as it already resolved with its previous engine.

“How do you fight on the track with this car? How do you have to think about the maneuvers, perhaps not to overtake in a conventional way? And how do you achieve a stint of 28 laps ahead?” Fernando was asked.

“Difficult, difficult because, well, we saw at the beginning of the race that it was complicated with Ocon, with Albon, who has a spectacular car on the straights. Also Alpine, that is, on the straights there are two or three cars that are faster than normal and in that sense you stay behind them for many laps. In the end Ocon stopped, Albon and I continued for about 8 or 10 laps, then Albon stopped and then I was able to drive another 6 or 7 more. So, Well, in general, as I say, we try to make one less stop, but it has been a difficult weekend also due to the drivability of the engine.

Car analysis: chassis, engine and what needs to be improved

When asked if the tone of this season should be more similar to what was seen this Sunday than the rest of the events, Fernando made it clear that the results he opts for will depend on the characteristics of the circuit and that the car will go back in those of maximum speed due to the lack of top speed. He recalled in this sense that in the next races, Honda will have to improve and optimize the engine’s behavior to get more potential.

“No, I think we have brought more parts here, we have improved the car, we have improved the chassis, another little step forward in that sense. I think that in the race, when the tires wear out, you no longer depend so much on the grip of the tire, and there we see the quality of the cars and the Aston stands out a little there. So we are happy with the direction taken in the chassis” he said.

“And with the engine we have to wait longer. I don’t think this weekend has given the result we expected. Maybe we don’t have that drivability, that gear change, everything that we had improved a little with the first engine, we have returned a little to the starting box in this second engine, so we have about two or three races ahead to optimize it,” he added.

“And in the rest of the year there will be circuits where we do better than others. In Monza, I believe, the next one will be one of the worst, there will be no possibility of taking points, but we will try to at least improve this aspect of drivability,” he added.

“In the engine it is more difficult, and it is not a black and white thing if you have more power or not. Handling is an aspect that varies when changing circuits after a month and it was difficult this weekend. We suffered in downshifts and in engine braking from corner to corner, so it was difficult in that sense,” he previously told the English press.

Hope for the future

“Does this chassis make you optimistic for the future?” they asked him.

“Yes, the chassis yes, I think trying to improve the weight, which we are still a little above, and now with the direction of development… If we bring this package and see that we are not going well in the curves, then you are a little worried, but now having a clear direction, now it is to optimize and work hard on this package,” he noted.

“I think everyone is very motivated now. This result also means that the two factories will be clocking in tomorrow at 8, because everyone wants more. It was just what we needed,” he concluded.

Strategy

“I’m happy. It wasn’t the plan because it was two stops, something more conventional. But sometimes we need to deviate from the normal because if you’re in traffic you can’t use our potential. We’re fast in curves, but slow on straights and we get stuck behind slower cars. When there’s free lane, we try to use it even if it’s not the most optimal.”

“The strategy was clear, but some of the blue flags, the overtaking maneuvers that we had to defend… that kind of thing was frustrating at times.”

“We are optimizing the package”

“It’s another step forward, especially in the chassis with its four new components. The Budapest package helped us understand in the break, thanks to the data available, so we optimized the new specification plus the new parts. We are optimizing the package and extracting the maximum.”

Deserved points

“We added one point in Monaco with nine retirements and today we added two just with the retirement of Max (Verstappen). I think it was deserved and in Budapest it could have been a little better. It will depend on each race and the straights. I don’t think we will be competitive in Monza, but in other circuits we will be able to fight for points.