Fernando Alonso has insisted he is relaxed about Aston Martin’s current situation in F1 and has urged the team not to stress.
Alonso has enjoyed a stunning season so far since switching to the Silverstone-based team, scoring four third-place finishes and two as runner-up.
But as rival teams have brought upgrades, Aston Martin has lost its status as primary challenger to Red Bull, as was the case in the early part of the campaign.
The last four races have been indicative of that as Mercedes was best of the rest in Spain, before Alonso and Aston Martin were the main threat in Canada, followed by Ferrari in Austria, and McLaren in the British Grand Prix.
Alonso was only seventh at Silverstone which he felt was a position “a little bit higher than the pace that we had.”
Trying to offer an explanation for what equalled his worst result of the season, as to whether it was track-specific, weather related, or if Aston Martin is now simply being out-developed, he replied: “Probably a little bit of everything.
“Out-developed a little bit in terms of a few teams have brought some significant upgrades lately, and track specific as it was not the best layout for the package we have.
“All in all, we saved a very difficult weekend. Hopefully, in Hungary (next weekend), we are again competitive. Let’s see in Hungary if we can come back to our normal pace.”
Aston Martin is due to continue with the development of its car over the next three races on either side of the summer break.
Asked whether such updates cannot come soon enough, Alonso replied: “Not really, to be honest. I’m not too stressed about the development.
“The car is better than expected this year. We are fighting for things that we probably never dreamed about at the beginning of the year.
“So now if we can keep in the top 10 and fight with the top guys, it’s great, and we have to focus on the long-term picture.
“We cannot get stressed every weekend if we are seventh, fourth, or on the podium. We need to be very pragmatic and very relaxed about our performance.”
Suggested by Speedcafe to Alonso that simply being in the top 10 was not good enough given his run of six podiums in 10 races so far this season, applying the pragmatism he commented upon, he said: “If someone else is faster than us we cannot do anything.
“We just need to understand, to learn from the things we do and, in a way, be happy with the position we are in.
“Three weeks ago we were fighting in Canada for the win, so I’m relaxed.”
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