2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

The good news is he was still 2nd fastest in sector 1 at the end of FP2.

[diffuser]

wonder if his eyesight has worsened. he is 43. raw pace isnt the issue. he was several tenths quicker than stroll

Think he's just having to drive the car closer to the edge than he likes to get pace out of it.

[RaceFanAM]

It was a small mistake, just touched the grass. This doesn't really indicate him losing his skill.

[diffuser]

It was a small mistake, just touched the grass. This doesn't really indicate him losing his skill.

It's just the way it is. Every time he makes a mistake it's gonna be because of his age.

[Sedaxel]

It was a small mistake, just touched the grass. This doesn't really indicate him losing his skill.

It's just the way it is. Every time he makes a mistake it's gonna be because of his age.

Once and again. And then again. My god...

[-wkst-]

It was a small mistake, just touched the grass. This doesn't really indicate him losing his skill.

It's just the way it is. Every time he makes a mistake it's gonna be because of his age.

I don’t care about age, just about performance, mistakes and all the relevant stuff.

Currently I believe that ALO isn’t the one we saw 10 years ago, but I just want to see, following this guy for his whole career, that he gets his (last) drive in a Newey car and some joy.

But I fear that Stroll will exchange ALO if he doesn’t start to deliver. VER is a real threat. One word he wants to switch to AMR and ALO is out…

[mvfad]

Stroll has never been a good comparison to get a real idea of ​​Alonso's performance. Maybe Alonso would have had more difficulty if he had as a teammate one of these young drivers who are emerging (even in 2023).

I would like to see Alonso with another teammate, who is better than Stroll (which is not that difficult).
Aged Alonso is definitely a much above-average driver, but perhaps not as much as Stroll has made him out to be in the last 2 years.

[Waz]

'dubious'? There is no situation in which this can be real. I don't know who put out such a rumor but they are not serious.

As someone with first hand knowledge with celebrity sales pitches, that number is just an eye catching potential earnings for Max and not necessarily even that unrealistic without knowing the timeline. If its over 10 years, its not impossible considering his earnings are already in the $80-90m/yr range as per most public information. If AM made a recruitment pitch to Max, this is how they would've presented it to him apart from all the other attractions. It would include everything from salary to endorsements, etc.

Salary that he makes in RB is huge but only because of the titles he won there and the bonuses that come with it. With Max, there are no guarantees that he will be as fast as he is now in a car with different characteristics. I would say that big teams would be willing to pay him $45-55mil max at the moment.

This is his 10th year in F1 and third set of regulations. His car this year is not designed by Newey and his car last year had very little input from Newey, according to Newey himself and leading to him leaving RBR for Aston Martin.

What else should Max do?

[diffuser]

It was a small mistake, just touched the grass. This doesn't really indicate him losing his skill.

It's just the way it is. Every time he makes a mistake it's gonna be because of his age.

I don’t care about age, just about performance, mistakes and all the relevant stuff.

Currently I believe that ALO isn’t the one we saw 10 years ago, but I just want to see, following this guy for his whole career, that he gets his (last) drive in a Newey car and some joy.

But I fear that Stroll will exchange ALO if he doesn’t start to deliver. VER is a real threat. One word he wants to switch to AMR and ALO is out…

Right but some people just want to blame his age. I'm not saying it's true. Just saying that's what people are gonna say. The end of the day, I'll will wait for Alonso to say it.

[ispano6]

It's just the way it is. Every time he makes a mistake it's gonna be because of his age.

I don’t care about age, just about performance, mistakes and all the relevant stuff.

Currently I believe that ALO isn’t the one we saw 10 years ago, but I just want to see, following this guy for his whole career, that he gets his (last) drive in a Newey car and some joy.

But I fear that Stroll will exchange ALO if he doesn’t start to deliver. VER is a real threat. One word he wants to switch to AMR and ALO is out…

Right but some people just want to blame his age. I'm not saying it's true. Just saying that's what people are gonna say. The end of the day, I'll will wait for Alonso to say it.

Maybe it is presbyopia?

[Seanspeed]

I don’t care about age, just about performance, mistakes and all the relevant stuff.

Currently I believe that ALO isn’t the one we saw 10 years ago, but I just want to see, following this guy for his whole career, that he gets his (last) drive in a Newey car and some joy.

But I fear that Stroll will exchange ALO if he doesn’t start to deliver. VER is a real threat. One word he wants to switch to AMR and ALO is out…

Right but some people just want to blame his age. I'm not saying it's true. Just saying that's what people are gonna say. The end of the day, I'll will wait for Alonso to say it.

Maybe it is presbyopia?

That's incredibly speculative, but I will say I found this recent Youtube video about eyesight and athletes pretty interesting. Nothing conclusive, but it's something that's potentially gone overlooked for a long time.



I certainly know from many years of sim racing that how you use your eyes matters a fair bit. But I wouldn't know how differences will manifest at such an elite tier of competition.

[AR3-GP]

Had it not been posted here that Alonso was suffering from a pinched nerve since the pre-season? Last year was the stomach thing. The year before that was the screws in the jaw after the cycling accident. The year before that was nursing the wrist injury from Australia qualy accident in the Alpine.

He doesn’t seem to catch any breaks. The injuries and other issues are harder to recover from at older age.

[ispano6]

Right but some people just want to blame his age. I'm not saying it's true. Just saying that's what people are gonna say. The end of the day, I'll will wait for Alonso to say it.

Maybe it is presbyopia?

That's incredibly speculative...

Presbyopia is unfortunately an unavoidable part of aging. It affects performance athletes just like any normal person and Alonso is at the age of onset (early 40s). Maybe he is having trouble gauging the limit of the track in certain light conditions and doesn't realize that he is over the limit. He didn't sound like he realized that he went into the patch of grass that induced his off. The same could be said of his Australia crash during the race. I wouldn't call it a rookie mistake, and maybe he could get his eyes checked if he hasn't already. He can get contacts, drops or even surgery to help correct it if it's the case.

[diffuser]

Maybe it is presbyopia?

That's incredibly speculative...

Presbyopia is unfortunately an unavoidable part of aging. It affects performance athletes just like any normal person and Alonso is at the age of onset (early 40s). Maybe he is having trouble gauging the limit of the track in certain light conditions and doesn't realize that he is over the limit. He didn't sound like he realized that he went into the patch of grass that induced his off. The same could be said of his Australia crash during the race. I wouldn't call it a rookie mistake, and maybe he could get his eyes checked if he hasn't already. He can get contacts, drops or even surgery to help correct it if it's the case.

Apparently, they were saying on F1TV, that based on how you're seated in the car, you can't really see if you're on the grass.

[collindsilva]

Whats the conclusion based on Practice, Long runs, quali sims, can we make it to Q3...