After a weekend that ‘hurt’ in Mexico the Aston Martin team headed down to Brazil & the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (more commonly known as Interlagos) just outside the capital city, Sao Paulo. It is one of the older, more traditional circuits with a thumping stadium atmosphere that is known for unpredictable weather conditions and so it was to prove this weekend, which would also feature a Sprint race. Before the only Practice session got underway the team had decided to revert to the floor specification introduced at the Japanese Grand Prix, back in April. This was because the new floor introduced as part of the major upgrades at the US Grand Prix 2 weeks ago did not deliver the expected performance. Only the new front wing introduced in Austin has stayed on the car; nothing else. After back-to-back testing in Mexico last weekend, the older floor was deemed most appropriate. As well as contending with that the drivers had to get reacquainted with the track which had been entirely resurfaced. It was pivotal for the drivers and team to gather as much data about it as possible before Sprint Qualifying. They went out in Free Practice, initially on the hard compound tyres, then switched to mediums & ended up on softs. However, the feedback that the team was getting from the drivers was that the track was very bumpy compared to previous years and that it was not straightforward to set the car up. Alonso seemed to have the better session, finishing 9th fastest, with Stroll 17th.
Just a few hours later Sprint Qualifying was underway and Alonso and Stroll went 3rd & 4th fastest on their first runs. But at the end of the 1st round the Aston Martins clearly didn’t have the pace & were eliminated - Alonso 16th & Stroll 19th. It was the first time this season that both AMs were eliminated in the first round of qualifying.
Upfront, Piastri took pole position for the Sprint race, Norris was 2nd & Leclerc 3rd. Before the Sprint race the following day, the team opted to make set-up changes to both cars & took them out of parc fermé, meaning that they would both have to start from the pit lane. As it was going to be just a 24-lap race with no chance of scoring any points the drivers treated the 100km Sprint as a practice session rather than a race. Zhou also started from the pit lane, behind the Aston Martins of Alonso, in 18th & Stroll 19th. On lap 9 Stroll had managed to pass Alonso, but the Spaniard kept with the Canadian & on lap 15 Alonso got the place back on the main straight. Stroll then got passed by Zhou on lap 17 & 2 laps later Zhou also overtook Alonso. Just at that moment Hulkenberg pulled his Haas off the track & retired the car. As a precaution the Virtual Safety Car system was deployed briefly & when the track was safe again it was a brief dash to the end of the race, which was won by Norris, after Piastri had let him through. The Aston Martins were effectively last, as Hulkenberg did not finish, almost a minute behind Norris, with Alonso 18th & Stroll 19th.
A few hours later, although the teams, fans & media were all set for Qualifying the heavens had opened up & heavy rain was pouring down. First of all the session was delayed a couple of times & then the decision was taken to postpone it until the Sunday. It was announced later that Qualifying would start at 10:30am GMT (7:30am in Brazil!) & the race would be moved forward by an hour and a half, to 15:30 GMT because of the forecast of more wet weather on Sunday. The teams reassembled early the following morning with conditions still very wet and so the cars went out on full wet tyres. However, yellow flags were soon out as car after car slid off track, Stroll among them – twice! With 10 mins to go Alonso seemed to have kept on top of the conditions & was in P2, Stroll was P5. Then, out came the first red flag, after Colapinto crashed his Williams into the barriers. The Aston Martin DBX 707 Medical Car was called out to aid Colapinto, but he was fine. The session soon got back underway & with less than 5 mins to go Alonso was 6th & Stroll 7th with the conditions making it challenging for the AM drivers to improve, although others did. Q1 finished with Alonso in 10th & Stroll 12th. By the time Q2 was underway the rain had eased off & Alonso went fastest overall briefly. Some of the drivers were taking the risk & switching to intermediate tyres, but it didn’t work for Sainz & he crashed into the barriers & the session was red flagged, just after Stroll managed to finish his lap to go 3rd. After the restart Alonso went fastest briefly, but his team-mate lost control of his Aston Martin with less than 2 mins to go and also piled into a barrier which necessitated another red flag. As there was no time left for the cars to go round and then get a fast lap in, the session was halted. Although Stroll would go through to the next round, having qualified 10th fastest, he wouldn't take any part as the Aston Martin mechanics would be busy rebuilding his car in time for the race. Alonso was an impressive 2nd. In Q3 Alonso didn’t put in a representative lap on his first run & was only 8th, almost 5 secs slower than the front runners. He went out again and was improving vastly, recording the fastest 2nd sector, when disaster struck & he skated off track & crashed, bringing out another red flag & the anguish of the Aston Martin mechanics, who now had to rebuild another car! No sooner had Alonso’s Aston Martin & associated debris been removed, qualifying was resumed, but only briefly, as it would be Albon’s turn to add to the F1 car scrappage scheme, when he had a hefty crash. Somehow, through all of this and 2 hours after the start of Qualifying, Norris had managed to place his McLaren in pole position.
If that hadn’t been eventful enough, more was to come. In the build-up to the race it became clear that Albon wouldn't be taking any part as his Williams was too badly damaged. Also, Sainz was set to start from the pit lane after his power unit and gearbox were changed. The good news was that all the Aston Martin mechanics & engineers had worked through the interlude to put both AMR24s on the grid. Alonso would start 9th & Stroll 10th.
But with Albon not starting, his slot, 7th, was empty, so the 2 Aston Martins would move up immediately. That’s what should have happened. However, what actually happened was that there was an issue with Stroll's car under braking on the formation lap, which locked the rear axle and spun him round & off the track & into a barrier. He managed to get going but the AMR24 got beached in heavy gravel & that brought his race to a premature end. As this necessitated dragging the car out, the race start was aborted, which created some confusion, as Norris proceeded to lead several cars off for another formation lap, even though yellow lights were flashing & not constant green ones. To add to the chaos some cars remained, correctly, in their grid positions. Norris was subsequently placed under investigation for a starting procedure infringement. When Norris and others returned to the grid all the team’s mechanics were allowed to attend to the cars as the new race start time was awaited. Following another formation lap all of the 17 cars were ready to start the race proper – just as rain started to fall again. Russell took the lead from Norris off the start, who then got blinded by the spray from the Mercedes. Alonso did get past Piastri but Ocon’s Alpine braked sharply in front of him going into a corner and he lost the place & was back to 8th where he held station. By lap 6 Verstappen had already passed 8 cars and was behind Alonso, whom he also overtook effortlessly later in the lap. Shortly after, Gasly moved up to within a second of Alonso, but it was difficult to overtake, mainly due to the spray but also because there was no DRS due to the wet conditions. Finally, on lap 18 Gasly managed to get by Alonso, who must have gone off as he was 2.5 seconds ahead of Gasly on the previous lap & just behind Piastri but was now 10th. Alonso then benefited from Leclerc pulling into the pits for a tyre change and Lawson having a slide on lap 26 & dropping behind Alonso, who was now 8th. The rain started getting heavier, resulting in Hulkenberg going off track & beaching his Haas at which point the Virtual Safety Car was deployed. So as to not lose too much time, Alonso dived into the pits to change tyres, as did other drivers & Alonso found himself back up in P9 when the track was declared green. However, on lap 32 Colapinto became the next victim of the conditions, when he completely lost the rear, slid & crashed, spilling lots of debris onto the circuit. The safety car was deployed immediately but given the fragments from the Williams deposited on track, red flags followed and all the cars were brought into the pits behind the AM Vantage safety car. In this melee, a new race leader, Ocon had emerged, with Verstappen 2nd. After 20 minutes of clearing up & securing the barriers by the very busy marshals the race got back underway behind the safety car – a rolling start. As soon as the cars were allowed to race Norris slid off track & lost a place to Russell and later on the lap Hamilton overtook Alonso, pushing him down to 10th, but still in the points. And this was still just halfway through the race! 5 laps later, on lap 40, it was Sainz’s turn to slide into the barriers and the AM Vantage safety car was deployed again. After more clearing up & securing it was time to restart, with Ocon able to control the pace from the lead. However, it didn’t last much longer, as Verstappen passed Ocon on the main straight into the first corner & off he went, building a gap. Norris slid off again & lost places, then it was Alonso’s turn to slide off & he came back on track dead last (of the 15 remaining cars) & 15 seconds behind Zhou in 14th. Alonso wasn’t giving up however. With 20 laps to go he was 9.5 seconds behind Zhou & on lap 55 he’d got this down to within a second. Finally, on lap 58 Alonso passed him to gain 14th place & that is where he stayed until the finish, although over the radio one heard Alonso complaining about the bumpy track & how it was hurting his back. The race finished with Verstappen winning in categorical style, with the Alpine’s of Ocon 2nd & Gasly 3rd. Whether you like him or not, Verstappen gave a champion’s driving performance, having started 17th, not sliding off at all & securing consistently the fastest laps of the race.
After the race, Alonso confessed “It was a tough day today. The car was really bouncing in the second half of the race – in other circumstances I would have stopped – but the mechanics did such a good job to get the car ready after the crash, so I finished the race for them. The triple-header has not been easy for us, with another one coming. We need to regroup and find some more performance.” Poignantly, Mike Krack, the Team Principal stated “Following our recent run of form, we have to take responsibility for not giving Lance and Fernando the car they deserve. They are being very patient but we are asking too much from them at the moment.”
The team has just under 3 weeks to ‘regroup’, before F1 assembles for the final 3 races of the season, in Las Vegas on 22nd November.