Alonso criticises FIA track safety decision – Aston Martin F1 are riding there crest of a wave of promise, with legendary car designer Adrian Newey firmly in place and Mercedes guru engine designer Andy Cowell now team principal. The hope for next year and beyond is huge for Lawrence Stroll who owns the team having spent over $200m on state of the art facilities and a new wind tunnel ready for Newey to test out.

Of course this year’s car, the AMR25, has none of Newey’s influence in its design, although he is believed to be analysing its aerodynamics with some upgrades coming in the pipeline.

Following pre-season testing most F1 analysts predicted that Aston Martin would be the second slowest on the grid, ahead only of Kick Sauber, and while their race debut in Melbourne left a lot to be desired, the car looked better than it had for the test in Bahrain.

 

 

 

Alonso explains his big crash

Alonso and Stroll were P12 and P13 respectively in qualifying for the Australian GP, although the Spaniard was half a second off the pace of Carlos Sainz who qualified tenth in his Williams. Yet on race pace the news was good for the Aston Martin team, with Lance Stroll tenth with and average lap time of 1:32.324 and Fernando Alonso was twelfth with 1:32.502.

Of course Fernando crashed out at turn six on lap 34 (57) and so his average lap times did not benefit from the car being much lighter as the fuel burns off towards the end of the race. The TV footage was inconclusive as to the reason for Alonso’s big hit on the barrier which caused a safety car, but the Spaniard was running a steady tenth at the time.

Over the year’s the FIA have tinkered with turn six, initially widening it for the 2021 event to improve top speed and create more opportunity for overtaking. Yet the run off area behind the kerbs then became a persistent irritation in terms of track limits violations and so for the 2025 Australian GP, the gravel was brought closer to the kerb to deter drivers from taking liberties.

“I need to review the incident, but difficult to understand at the moment,” Alonso told assembled media. “I think I was not off track or putting the car on a different racing line than any other lap before, so I found a lot of gravel just there in that moment where I put the rear tyre and I lost the car.

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Turn 6 a problem across the weekend

“So that Turn 6 design probably is not the best, bringing gravel to the track and not away from the track,” said the Spaniard.

Turn six was problematic for a number of drivers throughout the weekend, though it wasn’t necessarily gravel related. As the cars come through the turn at high speed, there is a crown towards the inside of the kerning which a number of cars rode, like the crest of a wave on a surfboard, but of course F1 cars are not designed to do this.

There were damaged floors reported by a number of the drivers including Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton replacement from Italy. “Yeah, I think so. I think we had a lot of damaged cars. I think Antonelli in qualifying destroyed the floor there,” Alonso continued.

“We should never have a corner that the gravel goes into the track, because that’s danger for drivers, marshals, everyone. So that’s number one priority. So, yeah, I think Turn 6 will have to do a little bit of a trick.”

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‘If there was a wall….???’

Of course the old argument proposed, when drivers complain about artificially deterrents for track limits violations, run as follows. ‘If there was a wall there, drivers wouldn’t exceed track limits.’  And Indeed Albert Park is really a street circuit which Alonso argues.

“It’s a semi-street circuit, so Melbourne is going to be always difficult. And you feel like a passenger on the car, because the car goes and that’s it, you crash,” he added. “My case again, it’s a little bit different, because it was not a white line. The track was completely dry. It was a dry line. In fact, people changed for dry tyres immediately after my crash.

“So it was just gravel, a lot of gravel into the track. And I was surprised about that.”

The new solution enacted for turn 6 by the FIA was indeed problematic with regards to gravel engrossing onto the asphalt throughout the weekend. Yet when drivers complain of track limit deterrents, whether kerbs or gravel, the old counter argument is usually given which suggests if there was a wall there, the drivers would take less liberties.

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What might have been for Aston Martin? 

A significant part of the Albert Park circuit track limit is in fact governed by walls and it seems a better solution would be to extend this style of barrier around turn six of the track. Whilst Alonso was disappointed with his race in Melbourne, Lance Stroll went about his business in impressive fashion.

Stroll read the changeover from wet to dry tyres to perfection jumping at one point to sixth while others floundered around on the wrong type of rubber. This hinted at what might have been had Fernando finished the race and the double world champion was bullish about the AMR25 despite its early season criticism.

“It was okay, quite positive from the weekend in general,” he said of the performance of the car. “I was in the mix, maybe a little bit faster than Gasly, but difficult to overtake when there is only one racing line which is dry, and outside of that is wet. We kept Antonelli behind for a few laps.”

“There are some weaknesses that we need to tackle, but at the same time, we found ourselves in the mix with all the other cars, and if we do good weekends, we can score good points,” Alonso observed.

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Set up experimentation continues

Aston Martin were in fact difficult to read during the Bahrain test given they spent a lot of their track time performing aero tests. This was presumably for Adrian Newey’s benefit, so he can give input into the direction the AMR25 should be developed.

Alonso appears to confirm this is the team’s current approach stating, “I think a little bit is set up as well. We kept experimenting here, and we saw the difference between FP3 performance and quali performance yesterday,” he explained.

“So it was the same car, same package, but one was very competitive, one was less, so there is a little bit of a setup investigation that we need to keep on going,” concluded Fernando.

With China up in less than two days and a Sprint weekend ahead, there will be less time for all the teams to experiment given there’s just one Friday practice session before Sprint qualifying. Yet on the whole Aston Martin should be relatively happy with the job they’ve done over the winter. They are definitely not the ninth quickest team and in the hands of Alonso with Newey’s input, the Silverstone based F1 team may be the dark horses for the season ahead.

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Chinese Authorities refuse F1 entry

Major logistical problems ahead of Chinese Grand Prix as Red Bull and McLaren among those affected – The Formula One paddock is facing major logistical challenges ahead of the highly anticipated Chinese Grand Prix. A series of transport problems have disrupted the preparations of several teams, including Red Bull Racing and McLaren. With the FIA stepping in to provide some relief, the delays have added further complications to an already intense race weekend.

As Formula One moves from the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne to the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, the tight turnaround has created a number of logistical challenges. The journey from Australia to China is already a demanding process due to the vast distance and complex transport requirements. This year, however, unforeseen disruptions have exacerbated the situation, causing significant delays in the delivery of vital equipment to the paddock…. READ MORE