"Sprint weekend not ideal for us," says Aston Martin's F1 team driver Fernando Alonso
Jun 28, 2023
Styria [Austria], June 28 : Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team will be aiming to perform well in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. Aston Martin's driver Fernando Alonso said, sprint weekend will not be ideal for the team.
In the Constructor's championship, Aston Martin is in the third position with 154 points.
In the Canadian GP, Aston Martin brought their first major upgrade package. But could not gather as much data as they would have liked due to running in FP1 being limited due to CCTV issues, as well as the rain hampering running time at points during the weekend.
Although Alonso believes the upgrades will see them fare well in Austria this weekend, as they seek to close the gap to championship leaders Red Bull, he admits having just one practice session could work against them.
According to the official website of Formula 1, "I think the Sprint weekend will not be ideal for us. We still have more time maybe of free practice with our new upgraded car. We still need to understand and optimise the package a little bit."
He further added, "In Austria obviously, with the Sprint, we will have only FP1 to do that. But yeah, it is what it is. The circuit will be good and maybe better for the package as well let's say.
While concluding he said, "Maybe good for Ferrari, historically here as well with a long straight and short corners so maybe Austria we have a little bit more pace."
Aston Martin Technical Director Dan Fallows also gave insights about the team's strategy in the Austrian GP.
Dan Fallows said, "I think the main focus for us, and obviously we want to put more performance on the car in general, but we've seen over the last couple of events particularly, that our car, there are some circuits that suit it more, and some circuits that don't suit it quite as much."
He added, "So, we've looked at concentrating on broadening that operating window of the car, and that's particularly what we're focused on with these updates."