Alonso points to hidden Aston Martin breakthrough despite Austrian GP setback

Alonso finds progress behind a bruising Austrian GP

Fernando Alonso has highlighted Aston Martin’s progress with energy deployment and gearbox drivability as a significant internal step forward, despite a difficult Austrian GP that offered little encouragement on the timing screens.

Aston Martin had started from the back row, with Alonso 0.912s slower than Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas in qualifying. For broader context from the same event, our Austrian GP coverage of Bottas and Cadillac also underlined how demanding the weekend proved across the lower end of the field.

Energy consistency gives Alonso a platform

“Inside the team, we faced some challenges this weekend, maybe with the altitude, a different track which is tough on energy, but since FP1, we made huge steps on the drivability of the gearbox, the downshifts, upshifts and energy consistency,” Alonso told media, including RacingNews365.

The Spaniard added that deployment inconsistency had been a recurring issue through the first part of the year, making qualifying laps harder to piece together.

“The deployment has been a little bit inconsistent for the first part of the year, so we got to qualifying, and every lap had a different speed on the straights approaching the corner, and we put a lot of emphasis here to improve that,” he said.

Gearbox gains add to the encouragement

Aston Martin has also been managing problems with its in-house gearbox, particularly losing gear-sync at low speeds. Alonso indicated that meaningful progress was made there too, pointing to improved downshifts, upshifts and general drivability from FP1 to qualifying.

“I think it was the first qualifying of the year where I had the same deployment for all three laps, and that allowed me to push the limits in the corner, because I knew the approach speed to the next corner,” Alonso explained.

For a team still struggling at the back, Alonso framed that as a morale boost rather than a result-based reward.

“It is possible to get demotivated when you are last every weekend, but on the team, no one is giving up; they are working to improve the car every session,” he said. “From the driver’s point of view, that gives you motivation to not give up, because the team is not giving up.”