Fernando Alonso’s frank “cannot hide lack of performance” admission

Fernando Alonso admits Aston Martin are “struggling” and urged them not to focus on 2025 yet.

The future of Lawrence Stroll’s F1 team is bright and exciting, particularly after the unveiling of Adrian Newey as shareholder and managing technical partner.

Aston Martin’s new Silverstone facility, their own wind tunnel and a link-up with Honda suggest there is plenty to be positive about.

But, they are enduring a difficult year.

Alonso finished the F1 Singapore Grand Prix in eighth, after finishing sixth in Azerbaijan.

But clearly McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes have faster cars.

“Eighth is better than we expected coming here to Singapore,” Alonso said.

“Obviously the qualifying was very encouraging and starting P7, we were dreaming that P8/P9 was possible and at the end we achieved it.

“Good strategy from the team – we were behind Nico Hulkenberg, we undercut on Lap 23 and we managed to overtake him, so overall I think eighth was the maximum.

“Now we have a little break before Austin and we have to find some performance in the car.

“We’ve been losing a little bit of ground compared to the top teams and we are in the middle of the midfield. We want to change this situation.”

Alonso demanded “it’s a must” that Aston Martin further their development at the final six rounds of this season, rather than fully focusing on next year.

He added: “The last two circuits which were street circuits, we did good qualifyings and then in the race it’s difficult to overtake so we consolidate those positions in the race.

“But this cannot hide the lack of performance we are seeing now in the last few events.

“We are aware of that, the team is working flat-out.

“When the car is performing we are here to score points. When we are struggling like now, we still score points because the team is delivering the job but aware of the situation at the same time.”