After a weekend by the Mediterranean coast the Formula 1 entourage raced across Europe to the Spielberg circuit at the foothills of the Alps in the Styrian region of Austria – home of Red Bull. This was to be the 3rd ‘Sprint Race’ format weekend of the season, meaning that the 3 normal practice sessions were reduced to just one. Coming into the weekend, Alonso was already playing down expectations by restating what I had written at the end of the Spanish GP report, that as it was only 4 days since the disappointing results in Barcelona not much change should be expected in such a short space of time. How prescient was that going to be? In the sole practice session, the Aston Martins made a respectable start to the weekend with both cars posting times in the top 10, with Stroll in 7th, managing to edge ahead of Alonso, who was 10th. A couple of hours later the first Sprint Qualifying period of 12 minutes was underway. As a lap of this circuit only takes some 65 seconds all the cars were busy trying to set their fastest times over multiple laps. With 3 minutes to go Alonso was 16th and in the drop zone, but Stroll was sitting comfortably in 5th. It was imperative that Alonso pulled it out on his last run & he did, placing his AMR24 11th, but was then beaten by Gasly, who was marginally faster on his final run, so Alonso ended up 12th. The next period of Sprint Qualifying (SQ2) was only 10 minutes long and the AMR24s only came out with just 4 minutes to go. Stroll managed to put his car 9th, despite a scrappy final sector. However, as other driver’s set faster final times after him, Stroll was beaten down to 12th, where Alonso was, but was displaced by Stroll and ended 13th, meaning both Aston Martins were eliminated. In the final qualifying session Max Verstappen ended up on pole, Norris was 2nd & Piastri 3rd.
The grid assembled the following day for the start (with a nice DBX 707 at the back) of the 23 lap Sprint Race, they went round for the formation lap, watched the 5 red lights come on and then…….nothing. The start was aborted due to the positioning of some photographers at the 1st turn, which was deemed to be dangerous and they had to be moved. So the cars went round again for another formation lap, positioned themselves and off they went, this time without incident, although the 2 Aston Martins did go round into the first turn riskily side by side. However, whilst Stroll managed to get past Gasly & up to 11th, Alonso lost a place to Tsunoda & was pushed down to 14th. Stroll continued his progress & passed Ocon for 10th place and went off in pursuit of Magnussen ahead. At the front there was a moment of drama when Norris got within DRS range of Verstappen for the lead, then managed to pass him, but then Verstappen got the lead back and Piastri ended up passing Norris. By lap 7 Stroll was within DRS range of Magnussen but just couldn’t progress past. At the halfway point, Stroll was still 10th, Alonso 14th and that is where the race seemed to settle. Except that with 2 laps to go Hulkenberg in the Haas overtook Alonso, forcing Alonso off track, allowing Riccardo to pass as well. Although the incident was investigated by Stewards for any infringements it was clear that Alonso was definitely struggling with the car. No decision was taken and that is where the Aston Martins finished - Stroll 10th, Alonso 16th. For the record, the race was won by Verstappen, Piastri was 2nd & Norris 3rd.
With the Sprint races out of the way it was back to race Qualifying in which many of the cars attempted multiple laps in Q1. After their 2nd runs & with 7 minutes to go, Alonso was 9th & Stroll 15th, who then dropped into the elimination zone when many drivers posted faster times. 4 minutes later, just about every driver was queuing to get on track to set their last fastest times. Alonso just managed to hang on, stayed on the cusp & finished 15th. Stroll however, was eliminated, as he only finished 17th. In Q2, Alonso headed out with only 10 minutes to go, after every other driver had posted a time, but could only manage 13th, not enough to get into the final round of Qualifying. It didn’t improve and he dropped to 15th when other drivers posted faster times and that is where he finished – eliminated. The AMs would end up starting 15th & 17th for the race on Sunday. Verstappen would start on pole, 0.4 of a second ahead of Norris in 2nd & Russell 3rd.
There was a clean start to the race on Sunday, with Verstappen pulling out a healthy lead over the rest of the pack. Both Aston Martins had good starts as well, Alonso got up to 13th, having made a pass on Tsunoda and benefiting from Leclerc coming into the pits for a new front wing, as a result of a tangle with Piastri. But Tsunoda got the place back at the start of lap 2. Stroll also gained a place, to 16th and that is where they settled until Alonso came into the pits on lap 12 for his first tyre change, coming out 18th on fresh medium tyres. Other drivers were also coming in for their early tyre stops, so Stroll progressed up to 11th. On lap 14 Alonso gained a place from Leclerc who was struggling with degrading tyres. When Ocon had to come into the pits for his tyre change on lap 21, Stroll moved up to 10th and into a point position. On the next lap, whilst Alonso was attempting to pass Zhou going into a sharp turn, he hit Zhou’s car whilst braking late and locking up, pushing Zhou off the track. The incident prompted an investigation by the Stewards. While that was ongoing Stroll came in for his new tyres & came out 17th. Many of the front runners also pitted allowing Alonso to move up to 11th. On lap 24 the Stewards announced that Alonso would be given a 10 second time penalty which would have to be served at the time of his next pit stop. Stroll meanwhile had managed to get up to 16th after having passed Zhou on track. There was more action for Alonso on lap 29, when he overtook Riccardo, but Riccardo then got the place back at the next DRS zone. Alonso then had the 2 Alpines of Ocon and Gasly just behind him and within DRS range and was caught and passed by both of them. At the halfway distance point it was time for Alonso to come into the pits again to serve his penalty and change onto hard tyres, resulting in him dropping to 19th. By lap 38 Alonso, on fresh tyres, passed Zhou – fairly this time! Riccardo came into the pits on that lap, allowing Stroll to move up to 14th and 2 laps later he passed Albon for 11th place, other drivers also having come into the pits for tyre changes. When Gasly & Bottas had to come in for their tyre changes, Stroll moved back into 10th place again & Alonso moved up to 17th. Stroll eventually had to come in for his final tyre change and came out 16th, just ahead of Alonso. On the next lap, Tsunoda, who had just been in for a tyre change was coming back out on track just ahead of Stroll. But Stroll, on nicely warmed up tyres, just managed to pass him. With 20 laps to go the Astons were positioned in 15th & 17th. At this point there was plenty of action going on at the very front as Norris, in the McLaren, was within a second of race leader Max Verstappen. During that battle, Stroll managed to gain a couple of places and was up to 13th but Alonso dropped a place, to 18th. A few laps later Stroll was passed by Leclerc in a Ferrari. Back at the front, after a number of laps where Norris attempted to pass Verstappen, the two cars came together and both got punctures, requiring them to limp back to the pits. The McLaren was not able to rejoin the race, as the tyre carcass had damaged the car extensively, but the Red Bull was OK. This collision between the duelling race leaders allowed Russell in a Mercedes to steal the lead and race to the chequered flag a few laps later, 2 seconds ahead of Piastri in the other McLaren and Sainz, who take 3rd. Stroll finished the race in 13th and Alonso was 18th after coming into the pits for soft tyres with 2 laps to go, to be able to set the fastest lap of the race, for which no point was awarded.
It was another disappointing and scoreless weekend for the Aston Martin team. There were a vast number of points on offer but the team came away with none. After the race Lance Stroll said “….my afternoon was mainly about managing tyres to make a two-stop strategy work. I made a few overtakes, but we were lacking the pace to make much impact to our finishing positions. It's been a difficult weekend; we're in a run of races that don't suit our car, so there's a lot of work to do." Alonso said pretty much the same. “It was a tough day for us as we expected. We didn't have the pace, so we were trying different strategies to mix it up. We have our home race next week in Silverstone and the team is doing everything possible to improve the situation.”
And Silverstone is where I am heading to on Thursday, without any great expectation as again, not much can change in such a short space of time. I hope that I may see some of you there.
Edward Jensen – if you’d like to join the WhatsApp group just follow this link:https://chat.whatsapp.com/BnZvzZwTnKzI67DFs1rz4L