Despite Being Handicapped in Baku, Fernando Alonso Retains His Ambitious Expectations With Opportunities Galore

Daniel Ricciardo won the 2018 Monaco GP with only six gears. While it’s not race day yet but Fernando Alonso is also hoping to win this weekend despite a handicap handed to him by the AMR23. Whilst the handicap is not as bad as what Ricciardo had, it might have a more detrimental effect, owing to the characteristic of Baku. Nevertheless, the Spaniard keeps the fighting spirit as he looks forward to the rest of the weekend.

The AMR23 was speculated to be slower along that long straight at Azerbaijan, and that’s what happened. However, a new rear wing was brought as an upgrade to Baku, which did decrease the drag but came with a new set of problems. The DRS flap did not open during the practice session on Alonso’s car, causing him valuable track time after what was the only practice session. Q1 and Q2 went well for Spaniard after he looked to finish well inside the Top 5 and maybe even challenge for the first two rows of the Grid.

The practice woes returned in Q3 as the DRS issue struck Aston Martin again. As a result, Fernando Alonso starts P6 and Lance Stroll starts P9. However, Fernando Alonso is not one who backs down and has expressed hope. The Spaniard suggested that could’ve been a little quicker had it not been for the DRS issue. It was close, and they lost a couple of places because of it. Despite the issue, Alonso explained how it’s a long weekend with 1 qualifying and 2 racing sessions still to come.

According to motorsport.com, Fernando Alonso said, “I’m happy, but we could have been a little better. We had problems with DRS in the first training and also in the rankings, and this cost us a few tens. As it was so close, there would be a difference (if it weren’t for that problem). However, we are still on Friday. A long weekend awaits us. Tomorrow there will be another ranking and another race, followed by a race on Sunday. So yes, there will be a lot of opportunities. I hope we can win a few places.”

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Fernando Alonso seems optimistic and is sure about the underlying pace of the AMR23. However, the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll also experienced issues related to the DRS as well. Let’s see what Stroll has to say about these issues.

Lance Stroll on how the technical issue affected his AMR23 

Stroll was fortunate enough to only have the DRS issue in Q3, unlike his teammate who lost track time in practice. Lance Stroll explained that the car felt good and had the confidence to push it around the tight Baku streets. It’s important for drivers to get a feel for the car after a month-long break. The Canadian further explained that he had a complete DRS failure on the main straight that cost him a fair bit of time. He and the team will try to solve the problem before the sprint.

According to AstonMartinF1.com, Lance Stroll said, “It was close out there today; the car felt good and I had the confidence to push hard which is a huge benefit around a circuit like this. Unfortunately, we were having intermittent DRS issues throughout the session and I completely lost DRS on the pit straight during Q3. It cost us a fair bit of time but we’ll be doing our best to solve the issue before running tomorrow.”

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What do you think of this DRS issue? Will Alonso be able to make up places on Sunday? How will the new sprint format suit Aston Martin?