Alonso: It was a tricky race for us

Fernando Alonso’s 33rd Formula 1 victory has to wait, as he had no realistic chance of achieving it after an underwhelming performance in the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix saw the Spaniard finish seventh.

Fernando Alonso’s home race in Barcelona was no doubt a disappointing one, both for him and his fans, as it was the worst result the double F1 Champion has endured so far in 2023, while the Spanish crowds were left disheartened after failing to see their hero on the podium, let alone winning.

But Aston Martin never looked good in Spain from practice, and Alonso’s car-damaging error in Qualifying on Saturday put him the back for for the Grand Prix on Sunday that saw him get beaten by teammate Lance Stroll for the first time this season.

“We didn’t have as much pace today on both the Soft and Hard compounds, so it was a tricky race for us,” Alonso said in Aston Martin‘s post race media brief.

“We tried to go longer on our strategy and hoped it would pay off later with fresher tyres, but our rivals had a little more pace. I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us.

“I thought our performance seemed better in qualifying,” he pointed out, “so I think we need to look at why and aim to bounce back for Canada.

“We still scored some solid points and we had no risk at the end of the race. I want to thank the fans for their passion, energy and support this weekend. It was very emotional and special for me,” Alonso concluded.

Stroll: We’d been hoping for slightly more

Stroll who finally beat Alonso this season, added: “It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I’ve pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did.

“That put me in a good position going into Turn 5 and I could hold the place. Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace. My tyre degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn’t seem to have the same issue, so it’s something we’ll look to understand for the coming races.

“We bring home some good points finishing sixth and seventh, but I think we’d been hoping for slightly more today. I’m looking forward to heading to Canada, my home race, in a few days’ time,” Stroll concluded.

Mike Krack, Aston Martin’s Team Principal summed up the team’s Sunday afternoon in Barcelona, he said: “It was good to have both Aston Martins finish well this afternoon and we come away from Barcelona with 14 points.

“Lance and Fernando pushed hard all afternoon, made some important overtakes, and showed great teamwork. We should not be disappointed with this result – even though we did not quite have the pace to fight for the podium today.

“It was in the first stint on the Softs that we did not quite have the performance to catch the cars ahead and in the second and third stints we managed our pace and had a comfortable advantage over the teams behind us,” he explained.

“Before we leave Spain, I want to say a big thank you to the passionate fans: their energy has been very motivating throughout this race week, and we have really enjoyed racing here,” Krack concluded.