Last Updated on March 2 2025, 8:48 am

Aston Martin’s test struggles: Alonso unfazed but realistic – Fernando Alonso did not sound particularly fresh as he spoke to journalists on Friday. The slightly nasal tone in his voice suggested he may have been battling a slight cold, but that didn’t stop him from delivering his trademark blunt assessments. When asked if he would be world champion in 2024, Alonso didn’t even entertain the idea for a moment. “No, I don’t think so,” he replied without hesitation.

It was an answer that would not have surprised anyone, given Aston Martin’s pre-season form. Alonso’s winter testing in Bahrain had been far from spectacular, and while his performances last year had hinted at a possible challenge to the front runners, the early signs for 2025 paints a different picture.

Alonso was not originally scheduled to be in the car on Friday morning, but illness forced teammate Lance Stroll to pull out. The Spaniard stepped in and later returned to the track when Stroll abandoned his session after just 34 laps. At the end of the day, Alonso was 16th fastest, two-and-a-half seconds behind the benchmark set by George Russell in the Mercedes.

After three days of testing, Aston Martin had covered just 1,656 kilometres in the AMR25, ranking ninth out of all the teams in terms of mileage. The only team to cover less distance was Red Bull. Given the importance of winter testing in refining a car’s reliability and performance, the statistics suggested that Aston Martin could be in for a tough start to the season.

 

 

Is Aston Martin slipping down the F1 pecking order?

Alonso’s cautious outlook on the team’s championship chances this year was in stark contrast to his comments last winter. In 2023, following Aston Martin’s strong pre-season, he had famously stated, “Nineteen drivers already know they will not be world champions”. That statement has aged well in the sense that Max Verstappen went on to dominate the season, but Red Bull surprisingly lost some momentum in the constructors’ championship, finishing third behind Mercedes and Ferrari.

This year, Alonso admits the landscape is different. “A year ago, after the winter tests, it looked like Max had a huge lead. This year it looks like McLaren have a lead,” he said. However, unlike last season when Aston Martin looked like a solid podium contender, Alonso does not expect his team to be in the mix at the front.

Early predictions suggest that Aston Martin could find themselves as low as eighth in the current performance hierarchy, behind not only Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, but also Alpine, Williams and the newly rebranded Racing Bulls. It would be a significant step back from the team that took eight podiums with Alonso last season.

During testing, Alonso’s average finish over three days was 16th out of 20 drivers. That statistic alone would be alarming if taken at face value, but the veteran remained relatively calm, attributing Aston Martin’s underwhelming results to their approach to testing. “Obviously we ran a different programme to some of the other teams,” he explained. Unlike some of the front-runners, who set their best times on the softest tyre compounds in optimum track conditions, Aston Martin focused on other compounds.

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Alonso’s view of the AMR25: progress, but not enough

Despite the worrying statistics, Alonso tried to maintain a measured perspective. “I think we have some positive aspects of the car,” he said. “We don’t go into details, but obviously the data and the correlation is good. And there is progress compared to last year’s car.”

However, he was quick to admit that there are weaknesses. “There are some negative points, like probably with all the teams. Things we need to improve and optimise for Australia and later in the season,” he added.

One of the biggest concerns for Aston Martin was the reliability of the AMR25. The car spent more time in the pits than most of its rivals, raising questions about whether the team had successfully addressed some of the durability issues that plagued them last year.

However, Alonso played down these concerns, stating, “The fact that we haven’t done many laps doesn’t worry us. The hardware, the car itself, is basically the 2024 model. Only the outer skin and the aerodynamic parts have changed significantly to improve performance. But the engine, the radiator, the driveshafts, the suspension – everything is the same.

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Alonso points at Stroll

One of Alonso’s comments stood out as particularly interesting, perhaps hinting at a disagreement within the team. Discussing the car’s development, he noted that Aston Martin had reached a point where “it’s quite difficult to add downforce without making the car more difficult to drive”.

This statement could be interpreted as a subtle dig at his team-mate Lance Stroll. At the team’s launch event in February, Aston Martin had emphasised that one of its key design priorities for 2024 was to make the AMR25 easier to handle.

Stroll, in particular, had struggled with the unpredictability of last year’s car and had pushed for a set-up that would make it more forgiving.

Alonso, on the other hand, thrives in a car with aggressive rear end characteristics that allow him to extract performance through precise control, much like the AMR 2023 car Alonso challenged Verstappen for wins with.

His comment suggests that while the team may have made the AMR25 easier to drive for Stroll, it may have come at the expense of raw downforce – something Alonso would have preferred to maximise his own competitiveness.

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Can Aston Martin find a way forward?

Despite the shaky winter test results, Alonso remained level-headed. “It’s true that it’s very windy and hot today, which makes the car a bit more difficult to drive,” he said on Friday. “But in the time I spent in the garage this morning, I saw that practically everyone had problems and difficult moments.

The real question for Aston Martin is whether they can bounce back quickly enough to be challenging for podium finishes at the start of 2023. One potential wildcard in their favour is the arrival of legendary designer Adrian Newey, who will soon begin work at Silverstone. While Newey’s primary focus is likely to be on Aston Martin’s 2026 project, it would not be surprising to see him contribute to the refinement of the AMR25.

For now, though, the reality is stark: Alonso, a driver who once seemed poised to challenge for regular podiums with Aston Martin, is now preparing for a season where simply scoring points may require a “perfect weekend”. It is a far cry from the optimism of last year, and unless the team can find answers quickly, Alonso may soon be looking elsewhere for his next competitive challenge.

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MORE F1 NEWS – FIA backtrack over swearing rules

Formula One testing ia over and now the wait for the first Grand Prix in Melbourne begins. On the first day of the pre-season event in Bahrain there was a rain delay of an hour and George Russell was not happy that his time in the car was being compromised.

In a live interview with Sky F1 he used the word “shit” while the delay ensued and there was much speculation he would be sanctioned under the all new FIA rules governing bad language which was unilaterally decided in January.

Now F1 drivers will receive a €40,000 fine id they are caught swearing which is four times the amount of drivers in any other of the FIA appointed racing categories. Further, and in effect quite sinister, is the regulation which will see a driver banned for a whole month should he fall foul off this new rule in a rolling twelve month period…READ MORE ON THIS STORY