Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix was dominated by questions over crew orders, potential pressure amongst teammates, and issues over the place a sure crew goes from right here.
In fact, we’re speaking about Aston Martin.
Sure, how McLaren dealt with issues between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris captured the early headlines, however over at Aston Martin, comparable points over a set of crew orders late within the race have surfaced. Each Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had been working on the perimeter of the factors late within the race, with Alonso in tenth and Stroll simply behind him in P11.
However with Stroll on more energizing tires, Alonso was informed that if he couldn’t catch Tsunoda, he would swap positions with Stroll to let his teammate try to run down the Visa Money App RB F1 Staff driver along with his more energizing rubber. “Fernando, we’ve acquired yet another lap to shut up on Tsunoda, but when not, we’re going to present Lance an opportunity,” stated Alonso’s Race Engineer Chris Cronin. “Seven laps to go. Seven.”
Alonso was additionally informed that if Stroll couldn’t get to Tsunoda, the place could be given again.
“[W]e will swap again if he doesn’t get in,” added Cronin. “We’ll swap again.”
On the opposite facet of the pit wall Stroll was being suggested concerning the ways. “Fernando gives you DRS, we’ll go previous him into flip one after which we have to get Tsunoda,” Race Engineer Andrew Vizard knowledgeable him. “All the things to get Tsunoda now, in any other case we are going to swap again on the finish of the race,” Vizard added.
Whereas Stroll reduce into Tsunoda’s benefit, he by no means acquired in place to aim an overtake. When the ultimate lap got here, Vizard reminded Stroll that he wanted to present the place again.
“That is the ultimate lap,” reminded Vizard. “So in case you don’t get him now, it’s worthwhile to change again and pull the road. Fernando’s 4 seconds behind you, there’s no strain behind. I recommend you drop again and let Fernando move. He’s 4 seconds again.”
Nonetheless, Stroll didn’t reply and took the checkered flag in tenth place.
Neither driver addressed the set of crew orders following the race however talked about different technique choices applied through the race.
“Sadly we missed out on the factors at the moment and didn’t fairly optimise our race. We pitted fairly early and from that time on we had fairly a protracted race forward managing the [tires],” stated Alonso. “It’s the primary long-distance we’ve carried out with the brand new package deal, so we have to go and analyze our new updates and be taught extra forward of Belgium subsequent week.”
“It was a troublesome race for us. I don’t suppose we optimised the technique and we weren’t aggressive sufficient,” stated Stroll. “We struggled with [tire] degradation, too. We’ve acquired loads of work to do as a crew forward of the following spherical. Spa is a really completely different monitor, so hopefully that fits our automotive extra.”
As for why the swap was not made, Stroll possible believed that on the more energizing tires, he would have caught Alonso anyway, which may very well be why he was reluctant to swap positions again on the finish. And, after all, we’re speaking about P10 and the ultimate level on supply.
Not one thing greater.
