Aston Martin is set to bring an upgrade to the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix in just under two weeks’ time. The announcement follows the race weekend in Barcelona, where the team fell behind Mercedes and Ferrari in the battle for Red Bull’s next challengers.
With rivals having made significant improvements to their cars over the last two races, Aston Martin’s poor performance could suggest that it has been overtaken as it lags behind in introducing updates of its own.
Earlier, Fernando Alonso, who missed the podium in Barcelona for only the second time this season, urged his team to speed up the introduction of upgrades if they are to continue to challenge for podium places on a regular basis.
Alonso puts pressure on Aston Martin
Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says Alonso is right to put pressure on them to deliver more, but insists plans are in place for future improvements.
“He’s right to ask us to do it and push us to do it,” Krack says. “There will be something coming in Canada. It will be a step.”
Mercedes and Ferrari believe they have evolved enough to change the current pecking order. Aston Martin, however, thinks it is too early. Asked if he feels the upgrades made by his rivals have shaken up the field, Krack says: “No, I don’t think so.”
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Analysis of first stint weakness
Krack points out that while Aston Martin struggled on the soft tyres in the first stint at Barcelona, things seemed to stabilise as everyone switched to the harder compounds later in the race.
“For example, when we switched to the harder tyres later in the race, we were back in the game compared to our rivals,” points out the team principal.
“So we really need to understand what happened at the start of the race. It went from very sunny to cloudy very quickly and we thought that would help the soft tyres. But we need to understand why there was such a difference in competitiveness at different times of the race.”
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Rare qualifying mistake sets Alonso back
Krack also believes that the order in Spain does not directly reflect the pace of the top teams: “I think it’s too early or too easy to say that, because we haven’t seen the whole picture in qualifying.”
Alonso’s race chances, for example, were severely hampered by a mistake in Q1. He damaged his floor and didn’t make the front row.
“It is similar to the beginning of the year when we say we need three races to see where we really are,” says the Aston Martin Team Principal, adding “It may well be that others have made a bigger step forward. But our early analysis doesn’t reflect that yet.”
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