Alonso hails Aston Martin breakthrough amid ‘back to square one’ Honda claim

Aston Martin has taken another step forward at the Dutch Grand Prix, though the upgraded Honda engine left a feeling of “back to square one.”

That is the verdict cast by Alonso, who explained his Honda statement to be a suggestion that old problems, which had been ironed out, are back with the Japanese manufacturer’s B-spec creation. But, Alonso is not particularly concerned, as he is happy with the latest step on the chassis side, and says a clear direction has been uncovered in a major breakthrough for Aston Martin.

Fernando Alonso hails Aston Martin step, Honda engine needs work

After a positive introduction for the B-spec Aston Martin AMR26 chassis in Hungary, further revision to the floor, front wing and diffuser were made for the Dutch GP.

Furthermore, the B-spec Honda engine debuted competitively at Zandvoort.

Alonso sparked celebrations in the Aston Martin garage with a stellar drive to P9, that only the team’s second points-scoring result of the year.

It was not all smooth sailing, however, as driveability issues with the new Honda engine complicated Aston Martin’s race weekend, particularly over one lap.

“We’ll have to wait a bit longer with the engine,” Alonso declared to AS.

“I don’t think this weekend has yielded the result we were hoping for. We don’t have that handling, that gear-shifting feel. Everything we’d improved with the first engine; we’ve gone back a bit to square one with this second one, so we’ve got about two or three races ahead of us to optimise it.”

Alonso issued a glum assessment of what to expect from Aston Martin next time out at Monza, with the Honda engine still down on power.

But, with these driveability dissatisfactions in mind, Monza will not be a write-off in terms of its value to Aston Martin and Honda.

“And for the rest of the year, there’ll be circuits where we’ll do better and others where we’ll do worse,” Alonso continued.

“Monza is going to be one of the worst and there’ll be no chance of scoring points, but we’ll try to improve this aspect of the handling.”

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However, Alonso is not particularly alarmed.

The Spaniard declared that Aston Martin “improved the car and the chassis” again at Zandvoort, and the team is “happy with the direction we’ve taken with the chassis.”

Now, instead of grappling to keep the team motivated, Alonso reckons that Aston Martin and Honda personnel will be hard to contain in the relentless pursuit for more performance.

“If we’d brought this package here and found we weren’t performing well in the corners, it would have been worrying,” Alonso added. “But now that we have a clear direction, it’s a matter of optimising and working flat out on this package.

“Everyone is really motivated now. This result also means both factories will have everyone clocking in at eight o’clock tomorrow, because everyone wants more.”

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