2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

@RedNEO You keep thinking that it was a a evil plan to favour Lance, when it was just luck.

You called it that not me but it’s clearly ridiculous to call it lucky when it wasn’t. The rain was coming and they pitted Lance first despite being capable of a double stack. Those are facts

I told you it was luck cause Lance was on dry tires. If Lance had wets, they wouldn't have pitted him. He couldn't keep going in the rain with dry tires. Alonso had wets, so he could keep going. Could they have pitted Alonso earlier? Yes but that would have meant knowing something more that the cars ahead of Alonso did. Those cars didn't pit either.

[RedNEO]

@RedNEO You keep thinking that it was a a evil plan to favour Lance, when it was just luck.

You called it that not me but it’s clearly ridiculous to call it lucky when it wasn’t. The rain was coming and they pitted Lance first despite being capable of a double stack. Those are facts

I told you it was luck cause Lance was on dry tires. If Lance had wets, they wouldn't have pitted him. He couldn't keep going in the rain with dry tires. Alonso had wets, so he could keep going. Could they have pitted Alonso earlier? Yes but that would have meant knowing something more that the cars ahead of Alonso did. Those cars didn't pit either.

Alonso was effectively on slicks too, judging by how easy Lance on new softs gained 10 seconds on the cars ahead. Look if you want to believe one side of the garage could anticipate the already falling rain and other side couldn’t then let’s agree to disagree.

[zoroastar]

if you look at the last couple of seasons as a whole, its pretty obvious that the team work harder to get lance the best strategies and pit stops. this race on its own was pretty hard to judge, and the team could be excused for not getting alonsos strategy perfect. there hasnt been a single race for 2 years where you could say alonso was the prefered driver though, even if stroll goes out in q1 they are always going to try to take care of him. sometimes, in hindsight, stroll may get a bad call, and the team are always very vocal about it being their fault that lance had a bad race. being the owners son does have its advantages. it just happens time and time again.

[diffuser]

@zeroastar to what end? They are struggling to get points as it is. Why would they risk points and risk finishing further back in the standings by favoring Lance?

The fact is that Alonso is always further up the stack. They will always go with a more conservative strategy with him. Lance , who is often starting out of the points, has nothing to lose by trying a risky strategy.

[-wkst-]

The fact is that Alonso is always further up the stack. They will always go with a more conservative strategy with him. Lance , who is often starting out of the points, has nothing to lose by trying a risky strategy.

Some people here are unfortunately not ready to accept such simple Racing stuff, because they are always behind this weird „STR is favoured“ stuff or „ALO is getting sabotaged“.

Just rewatched the important parts of the live timing with radio. They gambled with the softs in the first part of the race with STR, being P11 and only losing track position to OCO. Everybody else was just talking about the coming rain and to survive it, as did AMR with ALO. All slick tyres pilots had to switch to inters once the rain started, as did STR. Only HUL was clever and switched from worn inters to new inters also that lap. NOONE could knew that new inters were that much better. ALO switched with the whole leading pack (which a lot suggested to do here in the past, to just do it like the guys in front…)

Team asked ALO about the switch to the slicks, what he thinks, ALO agreed (his decision!!!), everybody else except RUS said still inter weather (they were right). Once ALOs and RUSs time got better, the leading pack including STR switched.

So STR was just very lucky in the first stint being on the right tyre the whole time and the team/driver did it right in the 2nd stint to pit him with the pack. Vice versa for ALO. No sabotage, just luck. Also ALO will recognize that in the debrief…


And to add: some blokes here should realize that the www is no legal vacuum. The lawyers of AMR would have fun with such insinuations („sabotage“).

[mvfad]

Stroll and Drugovich will test 2026 tyres for Pirelli next week.

[selvam_e2002]

time for Alonso to vacate AMR garage.....

[PinkFloydPulse]

time for Alonso to vacate AMR garage.....

On what grounds? His age or?

[Kamel]

The car and Fernando weren't fast enough.

[Sedaxel]

Alo says on post race interview that the other side of the box usually gets the strategy right. He also says that, given the team had the information of Str car, he would like that info to be shared to him since they're the same team. And several other spicy things.

Guys, I don't know, for me that sentences are very representative. Maybe they're because of the frustration of such an unlucky race, but he seemed calmed chatting with DLR, Melissa and Schlaffer.

[SSJ4]

Main issue for Fernando is his engineer for this year is a massive downgrade on Cronin from previous years. There’s a lack of communication and trust.

Anyways spa next. Should be more parts for that race outside of just a low downforce package

[Bisonas]

it was a race of many "what ifs"

Frustration for many of us is logical as it is logical for Alonso himself to question some decisions.

My opinion is that AMR took a gamble with Stroll putting him on slicks that just paid out. It was a gamble because when you know rain is coming hard in a few laps, you have to time your in lap for inters perfectly. If it rains suddenly and heavily (as it did today) and catches you with slicks in the wrong part of the circuit it can put you out of the race. It was a risk that weren’t comfortable to take with Alonso and a risk that usually take with the car that has less to lose.

From the moment that they put stroll on slicks and knowing that rain is coming soon, it was also easy to assume that Stroll was going to pit first for inters as it was the driver with the biggest risk to be caught in heavy rain with slicks.

What I can not understand is why they don’t communicate with Alonso his options. They always ask him, what he feels like doing, or what he thinks, but they didn’t give him options today. Before the rain started coming heavily, they were discussing about possible scenarios and Alonso told them the obvious. He told them that they are the ones that know what the weather is going to do, and that they have all the weather data and the data of others running with slicks etc. It was like telling them, look guys you have all the data, decide the best strategy, and tell me. It’s not the first time Alonso has to point out the obvious to the team in changing conditions like today.

When rain started coming down heavily, again they where completely undecided. They kept asking Alonso if he can keep the car in the track or not with those warn inters, or what he thinks they should do. At some point Alonso did tell them to box when he was asked and they boxed.

And there is where AMR is at fault. When you have changing conditions like today, in a track that you have both multiple slick runners and inter runners they should have the last call for when to pit, or at least provide your drivers with strategy options to choose from.
I think AMR lacks a bit on that department.

Today it was just unfortunate for Alonso how things played out.

The race left us with 2 what ifs. What if Alonso had taken the gamble with slicks early on like stroll, and 2nd what if Alonso had putted his mediums 2 laps later than he did, because for me if he had putted the mediums just 2 laps later, the outcome I think would be quite different for him.
Anyway, it is, what it is.

[diffuser]

it was a race of many "what ifs"

Frustration for many of us is logical as it is logical for Alonso himself to question some decisions.

My opinion is that AMR took a gamble with Stroll putting him on slicks that just paid out. It was a gamble because when you know rain is coming hard in a few laps, you have to time your in lap for inters perfectly. If it rains suddenly and heavily (as it did today) and catches you with slicks in the wrong part of the circuit it can put you out of the race. It was a risk that weren’t comfortable to take with Alonso and a risk that usually take with the car that has less to lose.

From the moment that they put stroll on slicks and knowing that rain is coming soon, it was also easy to assume that Stroll was going to pit first for inters as it was the driver with the biggest risk to be caught in heavy rain with slicks.

What I can not understand is why they don’t communicate with Alonso his options. They always ask him, what he feels like doing, or what he thinks, but they didn’t give him options today. Before the rain started coming heavily, they were discussing about possible scenarios and Alonso told them the obvious. He told them that they are the ones that know what the weather is going to do, and that they have all the weather data and the data of others running with slicks etc. It was like telling them, look guys you have all the data, decide the best strategy, and tell me. It’s not the first time Alonso has to point out the obvious to the team in changing conditions like today.

When rain started coming down heavily, again they where completely undecided. They kept asking Alonso if he can keep the car in the track or not with those warn inters, or what he thinks they should do. At some point Alonso did tell them to box when he was asked and they boxed.

And there is where AMR is at fault. When you have changing conditions like today, in a track that you have both multiple slick runners and inter runners they should have the last call for when to pit, or at least provide your drivers with strategy options to choose from.
I think AMR lacks a bit on that department.

Today it was just unfortunate for Alonso how things played out.

The race left us with 2 what ifs. What if Alonso had taken the gamble with slicks early on like stroll, and 2nd what if Alonso had putted his mediums 2 laps later than he did, because for me if he had putted the mediums just 2 laps later, the outcome I think would be quite different for him.
Anyway, it is, what it is.

It was never an option to pit Alonso early on and put him on slicks. It would be suicide for Alonso to give up 8 positions to put on slicks. 99 times out of 100, that's the wrong play. Who in their right mind would have pitted from Alonso from 6th to come out 14th?

Like I said, it was only an option for Lance because AntMan was on slicks and was close to 30 seconds behind Lance. This allowed Lance to pit, still come out ahead of Antman, in clean air and therfore not have to pass anyone.

[TyreSlip]

Alo says on post race interview that the other side of the box usually gets the strategy right. He also says that, given the team had the information of Str car, he would like that info to be shared to him since they're the same team. And several other spicy things.

Guys, I don't know, for me that sentences are very representative. Maybe they're because of the frustration of such an unlucky race, but he seemed calmed chatting with DLR, Melissa and Schlaffer.

Alonso is correct. It reminds me of Monaco 2023 when the team was indecisive on whether to put Alonso on inters or mediums. They had plenty of data showing that Stroll was going faster on the inters, who pitted two laps prior, but never relayed that information to Alonso or factored that into a decision when the rain increased.

It's worse than it has ever been whenever a strategic decision has to be made that wasn't pre-planned. Chris Cronin used to be Alonso's race engineer and is supposed to be the team's race strategist, so I do not know why information is not being relayed. Is Cronin partly to blame? Vizard certainly takes some. Where is the breakdown in communication?

Back in Miami, I lost a lot of faith in Vizard back when he insisted on Alonso staying out on worn inters when others were driving three or four seconds a lap faster on slicks (including Stroll). The data was there to make an easy decision, and the decision making that day was never justified. After today, with Alonso being kept in the dark most of the race, I do not have any more trust in Vizard.

The excitement of 2026 is really beginning to wane for me. I hope there are some people in Aston Martin who will wake up and take heed to what Alonso is saying about the execution of strategy being poor without holistic information being shared. Blaming a 9th place finish entirely on "luck" is the mediocrity mindset this team does not need going into next year.

[HellFish]

Do you believe it is possible that this season the team is concentrating more on Lance to enable him to secure some points, thus facilitating a ‘glorious’ departure from the team? I consider it improbable that Lance will compete with Aston Martin next year. Should there be changes at Red Bull and Mercedes, as speculated recently, it is conceivable that a leading driver might find themselves without a seat. Realistically, Aston Martin would struggle to contend for the constructors’ championship with only Fernando. Do you think this could be the direction things are heading?