24 July 2023 , 19:51
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Lance Stroll wants his Aston Martin team to return to the position of strength it was in at the beginning of this Formula 1 season.
The Silverstone-based team was the surprise package at the beginning of this year. Fernando Alonso was lightning quick in pre-season testing and lived up to the hype when the competitive action began.
Five podiums in the first six races made Alonso the most likely challenger to Red Bull and Max Verstappen. But he has been in the top three just once in his five most recent outings.
Mercedes have leapfrogged them in the constructors' championship. Meanwhile, McLaren have made significant strides and Ferrari also finished ahead of them in Budapest.
After his and his team's worst points haul of the season so far, Alonso feels Aston Martin have now slipped from second to fifth in the pecking order. "I think we were not quick enough to challenge anyone in front and we didn't have any threats behind, so three points, ninth and tenth [was] the maximum today," he told reporters.
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"Today, ninth is probably our pace – so behind the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, which is more or less what we saw in qualifying and what we saw in the race. In Silverstone we did expect to struggle a little bit, but in Budapest we thought we would be a little bit stronger. It was not the case."
Team-mate Stroll agreed that there are now four teams ahead of his and wants that situation to change swiftly. He said: "It's been a tough weekend. We just haven't been quick enough this weekend.
Lance Stroll wants his Aston Martin team to get back to where they were in the early rounds of the season (F1 TV)"We've got to find some speed in the car because we're just not as competitive as we want to be right now. McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari are quicker than us and we have to fight our way back to being where we were at the beginning of the season. I believe we can come up with some ideas and bounce back."
However, as Alonso pointed out, it's hard to keep up with all the changes with the pecking order shifting on a weekly basis. "Every race we would love to understand and we all have many questions but we never know exactly what is the cause of it," added the Spanish double champion.
"In Austria, [Nico] Hulkenberg and Haas were fourth in qualifying so we were all surprised. In Silverstone, Williams were very fast – we were all surprised. Here, Alfa Romeo was very fast – we were all surprised. But then in the race, normally everything balances out and the big teams finish in front. We are just in the back end of those top teams, so we need to get back to the front end of that group."