Fernando Alonso declared his retirement from the United States Grand Prix as “painful” and which left him “hurt” after Aston Martin finally discovered pace with its upgraded car.
Prior to the race, the team had endured a wretched weekend, with the catalyst a brake fire on Lance Stroll’s AMR23 early in the sole practice session which compromised the remainder of the weekend, and especially qualifying.
For the first time this season, neither driver was able to escape Q1, with Alonso qualifying 17th, and Stroll two places further back.
With Aston Martin unable to get a read on its major updates package, it took the decision to break parc fermé conditions to work on both cars and change the setup, leading to starts from the pitlane.
Alonso reverted back to the spec deployed at the previous race in Qatar, whilst Stroll ran the new upgrades, resulting in both cars delivering during the race.
Stroll took the chequered flag in ninth position, eventually promoted to seventh after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, ending a five-race run without points.
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Two-time F1 champion Alonso was also on course for a top-10 finish before being forced to retire seven laps from home with floor damage, with the suspect cause being the kerbs at the Circuit of The Americas.
Despite that, a positive Alonso said: “It was a super race for us, a great comeback, a lot of pace in the car.
“We started from the pitlane and we were aiming to finish eighth, so it was a very good race for us. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car with some damage that we picked up on the floor.
“It is painful because through the whole weekend, we were lacking pace and that was not good. Then in the race, we had a lot of pace but we still had to retire, so it hurts.”
Alonso felt the race, on the whole, proved extremely beneficial to allow the team to evaluate both cars, comparing one package against the other.
“Now we have a lot of information to go through at the factory,” added Alonso.
“We had both cars struggling, we didn’t do many laps over the weekend, and again we went into the race completely blind with new setups for both cars, even a different package between the cars.
“So it was a little bit of a test session, but I think we felt much more competitive (in the race) than in any other session over the weekend.
“Starting from the pit lane, with both cars (running) in the points, it’s better than what we saw (previously), and that’s good news, but obviously now we need to understand many details.”
An additional positive was the top-10 finish for Stroll, who has been in the spotlight of late, with his position in the team heavily questioned following a poor, and at times, unlucky run.
“I’m happy for him,” remarked Alonso. “He deserves to have better weekends.
“Even this weekend, he had tough sessions and not many laps again in FP1, but he had a good race, so finally some good news, and hopefully we keep going in Mexico.”
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