Revealed: The “answer” to “where Aston Martin’s pace has gone”

Fernando Alonso finished on the podium at the season-opening F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, a grand statement by Mercedes’ customer team Aston Martin who took a mighty leap forwards over the winter break.

They maintained their promising form until Hungary, Silverstone and this past weekend’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix where Alonso finished fifth, and Lance Stroll ninth.

“I have an answer for you about where their pace has gone,” Kravitz told Sky.

“[Performance director] Tom McCullough and [team principal] Mike Krack has both confirmed this.

“It was the Canada upgrades that confused the team.

“The chief engineer said that sometimes when you put an upgrade package on the car, it might work.

“It came at the worst time. The upgrades came in Canada. Where were they in Canada? P2.

“Second only to Max Verstappen so obviously that gave them a false steer that these upgrades were great, and weren’t actually unbalancing the car.

“When they got to Hungary and Silverstone, they found that the upgrades were, in fact, unbalancing the car.

“But they know that now. They are not confused. They are backing out, or rather adapting, the upgrades to make them work.

“It was the Montreal upgrades that confused Aston Martin and made them go backwards.

“But now that they know that, and they have money left in the development pot, and they have some more ideas, and they will have upgrades in Holland after the summer break.

“Look for an even quicker Aston Martin.”

Alonso turned 42 at the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race, his fourth race in a row without a podium.

For much of the early part of the 2023 season, the talking point was his inevitable 33rd career win having swapped Alpine for Aston Martin.

But Mercedes and McLaren have since overtaken Aston Martin in the battle behind the dominant Red Bulls.